Journey of the Machine Architect
by Thepingman
Summary: As a newest SPECTREs, Shepard was expected to be able to deal with anything. But nothing can prepare him for dealing with first contact with a strange synthetic, who may or may not existed only in his imagination, putting even more doubt in his sanity than Prothean dream already did. And Saren still on the loose with his evil Matriarch sidekick, oh joy...
1. Chapter 1

**Well, the inspiration of this fanfiction came from fan-made video clip explaining Lore of Elsword, and for some reason, Youtube's recommendation link turned out to be Velvet Room theme from Persona game and I somehow interested in it.**

**And the way of those hexagon rings revolving around Eve; well, let just say that her in-game 'Special Move Portrait' looks uncannily similar to Arpeggio of Blue Steel Mental Model (Anime version) and then add in Dr. Light theme from Megaman X to the mix and… you got this…**

**This's quite a very crazy idea, as you can see in the inspirations and by the story title, so I'm not quite sure how to follow up from here. Any suggestion will be helpful.**

**And by the by, Even you don't have knowledge of what Elsword is, this fanfic still readable as most of it'll be hinted, or explained, or show in the fanfic as the story progress.**

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**Disclaimers: Elsword belongs to KOG Studios and Mass Effect belongs to Bioware respectively.**

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**Journey of the Machine Architect**

**Beta Read by: Rosamanelle**

**Chapter 1: Strange Dream**

_High on the great metallic spire that stood amidst the center of civilization, a lone, slim, feminine figure stood on the highest balcony. Basking in shadows of the moonless night, she observed the prosperity of a civilization that grew so much in the past few years, slowly recovering from the catastrophe befalling the entire world in the form of selfish of men and demonic invasions decades ago. Seeing the city below, one would find it nigh impossible to imagine what kind of hardship, bloodshed and sacrifice these people had been through to make this peace reality._

_That's what the figure couldn't get out of her mind; despite the fact that the quest she vowed to complete since she fell from grace was finally coming to close, she couldn't – in good conscience – be happy about it when the price they had to pay condemned everyone she had come to care about to a fate worse than death until the end of the World…_

_Her satisfaction was fleeting; in her moment of triumph, where she reclaimed what was rightfully hers, the satisfied grin she plastered on her face fell apart and was replaced with a sorrowful expression once she realized that she was alone. None of her friends were there to cheer for her, to greet her with sunny smiles that were so different from the carefully polite grins subordinates gave to their masters._

_In other words, they sacrificed their futures so that she – and the rest of the world – could continue their lives and rebuild the world._

_"You never know how precious something is until it's forever gone…" The figure muttered sadly, glancing at the starry sky. "I never realized the true meaning of that saying until now…"_

_"Perhaps focusing on your goal caused you to blindside everything else around you…"_

_The slightly metallic, sarcastic quip made the girl to whirl around, coming face-to-face with another figure that had appeared by the door. Darkness shrouded the newcomer from view, yet two golden lights shone from where the eyes should've been with two crystal blue orbs glinting gently and providing a rough outline of the newcomer._

_The silence between the two didn't last for long, the woman on the balcony speaking first. "It seems I have become an unwanted guest already, haven't I?"_

_The golden eyes shook, as if the newcomer shook their head, before returning to stare at the woman. A quiet sigh escaped the newcomer. "Quite the contrary; it is good to see you again after all this time." She paused. "But… To see you mulling over the past like this… It feels a bit… how should I say this? Out of character? I guess that's what you humans would call such unusual behavior."_

_"The past, present, and future mean little to me, who has outlived everything…" The woman replied, before remarking solemnly. "Yet, our interaction over the past few years… my bonds, they shaped me from an ignorant overlord to what I am today, gaining the qualities that lead to my dethronement in the first place."_

_Both continued to observe the other, until the woman with the golden eyes broke the silence. "I guess fate has brought you here tonight… How convenient."_

_The first woman stared at her blankly. "What?"_

_The woman with golden eyes slowly stepped forwards until she was an arm's reach away, looking up at the stars. She spoke bluntly, something that she did whenever she was serious. "I'll be departing soon from this land… perhaps this realm as well."_

_The first woman blinked, her eyes glowing an eerie blue in the starlight as a strange feeling – the fear of losing yet another friend, one that could keep her company until the universe ended – surged through her. Closing her eyes, she spoke tiredly. "May I ask why?"_

_The following reply was half-expected, although she wished it wasn't the answer. "I am going to find a way to help our friends."_

_The scowl that had etched itself onto her face when she wasn't paying attention slowly turned into a sad smile as she acknowledged the other's resolve. She had never felt such a thing since her companions were continuously reduced until only she, her butler, and this woman were left. It pained her to think that there would be a day when she was all that was left of the legends they forged together during the darkest of times through fire, sweat, blood, and tears – and that that day was approaching quickly._

_Ironically, she wasn't exactly heroic herself, as it was her dethronement and, subsequently, the fall of other peace-loving factions from power that caused the first dominoes to fall, the rest of the whole mess following._

_A sin, albeit not wholly her fault, that would haunt her until the ends of the world and the end of her life._

_As if knowing what she was thinking, her companion spoke. "What is done is done. I won't ignore their sacrifices, but I refuse to acknowledge that there is no other way, a way that doesn't require eternal suffering on their part."_

_The woman's words sounded arrogant, but the other woman knew that to dismiss something as impossible is just as good as admitting that you've lost. She hated losing; that much she could agree with her companion._

_Still, as she was currently the eldest in their group – not including the Elven woman who also got the short end of the stick – she couldn't help but speak from experience, a sad expression hidden by the night. "As much as I loathe letting them be trapped there until the end of time, it will take too long to find a solution." Her shoulders slumped. "I don't want to leave them, but I don't want them to be free only to find that the world has moved on and death has claimed everyone they know. It'll only bring grief and suffering as bad, or worse than what they already know."_

_The golden-eyed woman seemed unfazed. "They would do the same… He would do the same."_

_Blue eyes widened, before the woman chuckled. "True, very true." She stopped laughing, her tone returning to its prior seriousness. "Can I join you on this quest? You know that I don't want them to be in there, just like you."_

_Although the glowing, golden eyes lacked expression, her voice did nothing to hide her stern tone. "No, you can't."_

_Anger flashed through blue eyes as she practically growled at the other. "And why is that?!"_

_Golden eyes, still unfazed by the threatening tone, spoke smoothly and flatly. "Your home and your people have been taught for generations by your usurpers – groomed into obedient war machines, neglecting everything else." The woman with gold eyes sighed, pity coloring her next words. "Most of them are more machine than a new generation Nasod from what I've seen, and that's saying something."_

_Unable to rebut the statement, she refused to be left out. Especially when the golden-eyed woman was a walking hypocrisy at its finest. "As if your position isn't the same as mine; you know, tugging on the leashes of the unruly children in our reforming civilizations."_

_Golden eyes blinked twice, before she answered. "There is a more fitting leader than I, one who survived the ancient war. And as a precaution," she added quickly when the blue-eyed woman tried to argue, "my servants will help her when it is needed."_

_The blue-eyed woman nodded slowly before speaking. "But they are your servants… wait, don't tell me… You're going to do this without their help?!" Seeing the other woman nod in confirmation, the blue-eyed one hissed. "Are you serious?! Don't make me laugh! As if those three –"_

_The golden-eyed woman cut her off. "They have lives of their own." She looked straight at the blue-eyed woman. "I cannot and will not force them to come with me for this personal matter. I promised them that they will have a live of their own – to be free of my command once the Nasod race is restored – and I intend to keep it that way."_

_Noticing the conviction in the owner's voice, the noblewoman couldn't help but drop the matter. It was no use trying to convince the woman, all of her reasoning was sound. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she had lost the argument._

_As if noticing her worries, the other woman spoke once more. "I managed to reproduce one of that man's achievements when Elrios was still young. Chronos's Library." She continued slowly, allowing the other woman to absorb the information. "It was built in a separate dimension, sealing them in a place where the flow of time is different from here. I will have plenty of time there if it's maintained properly."_

_"And your supplies?"_

_"I have enough to rebuild this city thrice over. But I doubt I'll need that much… Besides, it's not like I can't gather what I find on other planes of existence." The seamless answer sparked the curiosity of the blue-eyed noble as she wondered how big this 'Library' really was, but it was neither the time nor place to discuss such frivolities._

_"As long as I don't return to this plane, there will be time to explore. Even a single universe is large, so I may not be able to scour every nook and cranny, but even a few solar systems will do."_

_"You're not making sense again." The Noblesse did know what a solar system was, but she was more confused as to why her friend had to search through hundreds of alternate universes by herself._

_The she couldn't help but snicker inwardly; as if those three would abandon their mistress because she asked them to. They weren't loyal because she promised them things, it was because she gave them life and care throughout all of their hardships. They were friends with those who were sealed away too; they would understand and never leave her alone._

_The Noblesse would bet her entire treasury that those three would be waiting at the Library for her, taking off of Elrios whether their renounced mistress would allow it or not._

_Shrugging, she settled for smiling mischievously, knowing that her friend would see it despite the darkness. "Being in a high position with no replacement sucks. I would've gone with you too, another adventure for me! Ah, freedom…" She spread her arms wide as if to encompass the sky._

_The golden-eyed woman sighed. "It was the situation that forced your hand. I know how you feel."_

_The first woman huffed. "Yeah, yeah, no need to rub salt in my wounds." She paused, looking at her friend. "Come back safely, alright?"_

_Her friend turned to leave, but not before saying farewell. She had no doubt how long it would take her to complete her task. From the Noblesse's perspective, it would only be a few months, years at the most. But for her, she would face decades, perhaps centuries or millennium, of isolation._

_As the golden-eyed woman disappeared, the Noblesse shook her head before disappearing in a flash of light._

* * *

The morning bell rang throughout the private quarters of the SSC Normandy's newest captain, waking the owner from his deep sleep. The man sat upright in his bed, dark-brown eyes blinking rapidly to drive away any lingering lethargy.

As the man got up, he looked at his reflection in the mirror, or rather, a blank monitor on the wall near his work desk. Nothing was out of the ordinary, from the plain uniform he wore to his neatly shaved head.

"What a dream…" He murmured, moving out of his quarter to pick up his grey armored space suit from the general storage next door. Despite the fact that he should be marveling at the new gear he was authorized to use just yesterday, or be ecstatic over his promotion like the crew members on the ship – both new and old – he simply couldn't, his thoughts occupied by his latest dream.

It seemed that since that ancient artifact from a long lost civilization was discovered, he just couldn't get a peaceful, dreamless night's sleep. Even though it was the 22nd century – the age of the spacecraft – **John Shepard [3]** couldn't help but wonder if occultism wasn't just some superstition, especially when practiced by ancient, extinct aliens.

Maybe he was so desperate to see something better than a jumbled mess of pictures and static visions of the apocalypse that befell the Prothean civilization fifty thousand years ago that the damn artifact decided to tell him to keep his nose out of it by sending him this dream, but he'd be more thankful if it stopped altogether.

Yet, the dream was so coherent, and his could recall even the smallest of details in better clarity than the Prothean's jumble. He put his armor on, checking the gear over. It still made no sense at all; what was with that vision of a city under a starry sky as two females – as far as he could tell – talking to each other under the shadows of a towering skyscraper? They spoke in a familiar language, one that he was quite certain was English, about a rescue mission. Maybe he was thinking about finding Dr. Tsoni too much, so much that it was integrated into his dreams.

Really, the sooner he found Liara Tsoni and had her sort out the mess in his head the better. Whether she's associated with her mother, Benezia, or not was going to take the backseat; after all, he couldn't be expected to fulfill his duty or save the galaxy from the treasonous SPECTREs if he was questioning his own sanity like this.

Once he adorned his usual armor and was prepared to leave the locker room, Shepard couldn't help but shake his head at the not-so-downcast expressions of the crew members that were changing shifts. He knew that no one on the ship was uncooperative or unfriendly towards him, they were simply unhappy because their mission – his mission, really – had to be postponed for a while.

Why Shepard didn't see this coming was beyond him. Then again, there was the disastrous mission on Eden Prime, then running around the Citadel in hopes of finding incriminating evidence of Saren's betrayal, and subsequently, running into Garrus and Krogan mercenaries that were also after such evidence – and, after that, being lucky enough to find and save the holder of the evidence who chose to came to this Citadel instead of being somewhere else in the vast galaxy, then the whole presenting-the-evidence-to-the-Council business, it's not a surprise he forget that anyone's ship would be seriously damaged after such an expedition, not to mention that the ship he was on was only a prototype. Of course she had to be examined for flaws and failing components before she could leave.

Running into unpredicted combat didn't help the situation, either. If anything, it pushed the engineers, human and Turian alike, to ground the ship for at least a week of checkups.

To be frank, even Shepard had to agree with them, for two main reasons. One, he didn't have enough money to purchase another ship and hire another crew, unless he wanted to be in massive debt. To his mild frustration, SPECTRE status didn't mean that the Council supplied him with the necessary equipment, and he had to buy things out of his salary instead. A darker part of his mind said that it was a way to spite him and humanity's ambitions, as he couldn't recall any secret agents in human history that had to purchase their own equipment like this at all.

Secondly, as much as he wanted to end Saren and his Reaper Geths (and hopefully, this stupid dream) as quickly as possible, he disliked the idea of his ship breaking down during a mission because of faulty equipment – which could waste a few hours fixing things up, or end up with them being shot down by a ground-based GARDIAN because the stealth field failed to work as they tried to land – with a prototype you never knew what would happen. And Shepard wasn't going to leave things up to chance if he could help it.

On the bright side, the checkup didn't require everyone to get out due to the advancement of the Omni-tool and all of the gadgets. Shepard couldn't imagine how much it would cost to host all of the crew in some hotel, as he doubted that Udina would be willing to find shelter for them given his attitude.

So, he decided that if he was going to be stuck here for a week, he might as well do something useful in the meantime.

After checking for his equipment in the main locker, Shepard heard the gunnery chief he had rescued on Eden Prime call out to him, her armor already worn and ready to go on a mission. "So skipper, what's our mission for today?"

Looking around the cabin, Shepard noticed that most of his newly assembled team was present. First were the two humans, the Gunnery Chief William and the Sentinel, or Biotic user, Kaidan, saluting him respectfully at their place next to the holographic table. The Turian C-Sec officer clad in his uniform battle armor, Garrus Vakarian, polished his rifle – bought with Shepard's money, because it was SPECTRE quality and the Council couldn't be bothered to pay for that – calmly next to the human duo. Wrex the Krogan Battlemaster-turned-Mercenary leaned against a wall, flashing reptilian teeth in a grin towards Shepard – a grin that looked like it expected to see someone's head roll soon. Shepard, with all of his experience and conviction, knew that the Krogan was probably right, as a 'peaceful' errand rarely remains peaceful.

Finally, his gaze settled on the last member, who also happened to be the hardest to read due to the helmet and opaque visor that hid her expression from view, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She was fidgeting with her Omni-tool, no doubt excitedly calculating and planning out all the tinkering she could do to improve the Normandy. Everyone knew that she was ecstatic to get a chance to board the most advanced ship in the galaxy.

Shepard sighed, before answering the previous question, clapping to get the attention of his peers. "All right. For today, considering that our only spaceship is still undergoing maintenance, I'll be visiting Dr. Michel. After all, she only just got out of the frying pan thanks to… certain business."

The Turian C-Sec put down his rifle, responding almost immediately. "Please, Shepard. We know exactly what kinds of problems we've caused her."

The masked Quarian nodded, adding in her two cents as she rubbed the formerly wounded area that Dr. Michel had treated. "I want to ask you for shore leave so I can check on her as well. After all, it was my fault that she got caught in the crossfire. I was the one who was careless and got shot by those thugs."

Nodding to the two aliens, Shepard knew that everything had been decided. "So you two are coming with me." Tali and Garrus nodded in confirmation. Satisfied, Shepard turned to the remaining members. "Are you guys coming as well?"

Wrex spoke first. "I guess I'll be taking a stroll, then. There's no point in sitting around and doing nothing, and I don't think I'll be welcome in the Clinic, especially with my appearance." He grinned wryly. "I might end up scaring off the patients."

Shepard swore that he saw the Gunnery Chief's eyebrow twitch before she turned to him. "If you don't have any assignments for me, Skipper, I'll probably turn around with Wrex."

Shepard saw this one coming, what with her not-so-subtle xenophobic tendencies that were made clear the moment he accepted Garrus's help the other day – that and the expression she made when he let Wrex and Tali join their little band. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what she wanted to do with Wrex; she obviously wanted to keep an eye on him and keep him out of trouble. Shepard couldn't exactly vouch for the aged Battlemaster, either, since they had literally just met yesterday. Oh, joy.

But, in an attempt to prevent her from going overboard – Shepard wasn't naïve enough to think that Ashley would be able to stop Wrex by herself if she pushed him past her limits – he turned to another one of his squad mates. "Alenko, would you mind accompanying Wrex and William?"

At least he could trust Alenko to watch over both of them.

"If that's all, Tali, Garrus, check over your gear and meet me at the cargo bay in fifteen minutes."

"You sound like you're expecting something to happen," Garrus remarked, causing Shepard's eye to twitch. He sighed.

"Let's just say that after one fiasco after another, I don't want to leave anything up to chance."

* * *

_'I totally jinxed myself, didn't I?'_ Shepard thought as he staggered tiredly back into the Normandy late that evening alongside the rest of his team. They passed by a pair of engineers that were checking the electronic doorframes, the rest of the cargo bay silent.

He had had enough. First they had to deal with a blackmailer trying to corner Dr. Michel. Then they ran into Volus at the C-Sec headquarters, who asked for help because a Salarian was threatening his life. Then, upon talking to the Salarian, he asked them to help him scan the Keeper of Citadel – something he couldn't do due to the gray areas of the law. They then barely avoided an armed confrontation, and then proceeded to run around the Ward and scanning those green bug things so they could leave in peace.

As if that wasn't enough, they then ran into a bartender who asked him to talk to C-Sec and relieve his sister of her duties as an undercover agent. In order for that to happen, they had to talk to the preacher Hanar and try to convince him to leave Presidium as a favor for C-Sec. All he really wanted right now was a hot dinner, a bath – hopefully the engineers didn't tamper with those too much – and a good night's sleep.

Although running around the Citadel was physically tiring, the intense negotiations – which could turning talking with your words into talking with your gun with one wrong word – were mentally draining. Shepard considered himself lucky that he hadn't collapsed from exhaustion, both physical and mental, yet and have Garrus drag him back to the Normandy.

Really, he preferred shooting the skin off of the bad guys instead of talking, but the people he met today weren't really evil. Some of them were just doing their job, so he couldn't turn them into beehives. Not only would he be seen as ruthless, but the reputation of humanity – and the faith Anderson had in him to uphold that goodness – would plummet as well.

Kaidan seemed to share his sentiments as well, as his mission wasn't exactly 'peaceful observation' either. They had ended up running into a cash funneling in the gambling center. Failing to keep his mouth shut, he ended up prompting a giant Lizard to get curious and 'convinced' him to go on a merry chase around the Citadel. Add in a rogue Artificial Intelligence that tried to suicide bomb over top of him, Wrex, Ashely, and other civilians, it wasn't hard to see why.

The results were hardly surprising; the crew sat at the table and ate their respective meals in silence. Predictably, the only one not in the mess hall was Tali. She had taken her share of food and fled, much to the disappointment of a few crew members who wanted to know what the Quarian looked like under the mask.

This sentiment was immediately frowned upon by Shepard. She may have followed them on this mission out of her own culture and sense of justice, but she had every right to her own basic privacy if she wanted it.

Once the engineers finished for the day and left the ship, Shepard returned to his own quarters after he dropped off all his gears for maintenance in the general locker room, the automatic doors closing behind him with a hiss. He quickly tapped his Omni-tool, locking the door. He turned towards his bed and literally dropped on it, completely ready for some shut eye…

…Only for him to notice a strange, purplish glow from the corner of his eye. Training kicking in, he quickly rolled down the bed and got into a combat stance as no sidearm was readily available for him to use. He observed the potential danger to his ship and himself warily, deciding that it could possibly be an intruder as his brain finally registered what he was looking at.

The wall where his monitor and work desk had been was replaced by some strange, lavender bubble covered in dark purple cracks. The entire thing pulsated as if it was alive, shuddering every now and then.

Shepard decided on the most sensible course of action: he sounded the emergency alarm. To his surprise, although the alarm worked, no one attempted to reach him. His attempts to reach others was met with silence, and the distinct lack of people rushing to his quarters was slightly alarming.

He patiently, albeit warily keeping his eyes on the… thing, waited for reinforcements, but after five minutes he concluded that whatever this thing was, it had disabled all of his crew. He would have to get reinforcements from the dock, then. Although it was ironic – he, as a SPECTRE, should be able to handle anything thrown at him! – safety came before anything, and being in the same room as the strange phenomena etched onto his wall definitely didn't seem safe to him.

Yet, as he opened the door to leave, Shepard realized that he wasn't looking at the crew quarters on the Normandy anymore. To be more accurate, he had no idea where he was at all. Was this a dream, or was this reality? It was hard to tell.

_'This doesn't make any sense',_ thought Shepard as he gazed upon a long, dark hallway, a few blue lights glowing on the ceiling and floor to form a path of some sort. The hallway, which was unlike any Human or even Asari ship he had ever seen, looked, for a lack of a better word, advanced – and thanks to the rounded pillars that lined the sides of the hall, gave off an air similar to ancient ruins, like those of the Protheans. Except, unlike the Protheans, the pulsing, glowing lights in long lines that ran down the pillars and the hum of machines that came from everywhere, indicated that this place was still fully functioning. And well-kept, by the likes of it.

However, because of its ancient air, Shepard felt like he was in another dream that was influenced by that botched Prothean Beacon, but this time his Omni-tool was still functioning – as indicated by the yellow glow on his wrist.

Deciding to take advantage over the miraculous control he had over his dream body – he didn't think he would wake up from this dream anytime soon – Shepard turned around to look at the door he came through. It was still there, sticking out from the wall like bad wallpaper at the edge of the hallway, but it was closed and he couldn't pry it open. His only option left was to follow the hallway to wherever it led him.

"No use standing around, then," Shepard muttered, cautiously walking towards the end of the hallway. He hoped that he could get to the bottom of this, and that the mystery would be solved without having an Asari Archaeologist peek into his mind.

Soon the straight corridor curved, curves then turning into a downward slope. As Shepard walked down the corridor, the inner walls slowly disappeared, leaving only bare pillars and an unobstructed view of the admittedly impressive spiral he was currently walking down.

At the center of the spiral was a dark, spherical construct that was hundreds of meters wide, numerous pipelines arranged on its smooth surfaced. The pipes connected to something far above in the darkness and to the many pillars that lined the spiraling corridor. Shepard stepped towards the railing between a couple of pillars, leaning over to look at the structure better. By doing so, he saw the final circular platform. It housed a giant, glowing sphere, however he was too far away to see it clearly [1].

Shepard, in order to cut back on time, decided to climb down the pillar instead of walking the rest of the spiral corridor. There was nothing that prevented him from doing so; no sentry drones, no turret guns, no automatic defenses – something that Shepard half-expected to exist in such a strange facility – tried to gun him down, at least in his immediate vicinity. That, and the pillar had several places for him to grip, and a quick scan from his Omni-tool showed that it was sturdy and, most importantly, not booby-trapped.

Once he was a single level away from the bottom-most platform, he heard music. Its melody was melancholic, softly accompanied by the sound of a woman's wail. Looking for the source of the music, he spotted a lone figure standing on a small, raised platform that stood next to a walkway. The walkway led to the giant sphere that he saw earlier. Although his view was partially obscured by a pillar, Shepard could now see that the sphere was surrounded by several glowing, bright blue rings, and was almost painful to look at.

Silently, Shepard dropped onto the floor gently. A pillar blocked his line of sight of the figure from before, preventing it from noticing him too early in case it was hostile.

Slowly, Shepard peered around the pillar, taking a look at the only other being he'd seen in the strange place.

What greeted him was the sight of a humanoid woman surrounded by hexagonal holographic displays. They glowed an eerie blue, much like the rest of this place, instead of the yellow-orange of holographic technology the known Galaxy used. Her glowing, golden eyes were emphasized by blue streaks that looked like face paint under them, the object of their attention changing constantly as she looked at the seemingly ever-changing holographic displays, uncaring of her surroundings. But the features that stood out to him the most was her pale white skin that contrasted with the bright blue orb on her forehead. Even though it was partially obscured by her white bangs, it was clearly embedded into her forehead. Her ears also startled him – as opposed to organic ears, this woman sported a pair of black-and-gold cones, something that no organic being should have. He also took note of the small, silver tiara on her head. Some sort of royalty?

The woman was still, her pale hands decorated with loose-hanging, gold bracelets. Her arms were covered by elegant white arm sleeves, exposing her shoulders. The dress she wore was the same regal white, complete with black and pink trimming. A golden chest plate embedded with another blue crystal covered the bust of the dress, her feet bearing white, thigh-high boots. Although the combination was strange, it wouldn't look out of place in the Renaissance Era if Shepard's history lesson was correct.

Shepard observed the woman for a few more moments – it appeared that the only thing that she bothered to move was her eyes – as his mind began to flood with questions ranging from what this woman was to where he was and, dare he say it, was he really dreaming or was he insane?

His silent observation continued for a few more moments, before Shepard suddenly heard a mechanical whirring from behind him. Whipping around, fist raised, he prepared to punch the newcomer. Only for his fist to be grabbed by a… black-haired, humanoid robot in a white-and-pink 19th century maid uniform? Whose grip was quite literally a grip of steel? …What?

Its yellow eyes glowed fiercely from its pale, white face, glaring at him like one would glare at an unwanted visitor by a watchdog. Before Shepard could react, his other arm was grabbed. He sighed. There was no way to get his arm out of this vice grip with it still in one piece unless he does something to make this robot loosen its grip.

Out of instinct, Shepard immediately brought his foot up and smashed it into the robot's face, hoping that at the very least it would make it flinch and loosen its grip. But, in a manner reminiscent of an old, 1980s sci-fi film, all that accomplished was a dull, throbbing in his unfortunate unarmored foot, and an increase of the intensity of the robot maid's gaze. It stared at him disapprovingly, quickly twisting his arms behind his back to immobilize him. [2]

But, unlike the Terminator, the robotic maid merely restrained him instead of murdering him outright. A small comfort, really, even if this was just a dream. Or was it?

Then a melodic, yet oddly synthetic, female voice resounded in an equally odd language. The speaker was the woman whom he was previously observing; her words apparently prompted the maid to tie Shepard up carefully with a rope that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The woman in white beckoned for him to be brought towards the platform.

Once Shepard reached the platform, herded the entire time by the robot maid, the woman in white gazed at him evenly with a straight, emotionless face. Her golden - clearly artificial - eyes scrutinized him carefully, a hand coming up to touch her chin as if mimicking those deep in thought.

Then she spoke again – her voice a bit less tinny this time, but still with a strange accent – in near-perfect English of all things. "Can you understand me?"

Seeing no reason to deny her question, Shepard nodded.

The woman clasped her hands together. Shepard could feel more than see that she was excited; her facial expression barely changed, just a slight upturn of her lips, and her voice was monotonous as it was before. "Wonderful! I never thought that humanity on another plane of existence would use the same language as ours. I thought I would run into a massive language barrier when attempting to communicate with you, but this speeds up the process. How curious."

Now it was Shepard's turn to look thoughtful. "What do you mean, 'different plane of existence?' And, pardon my rudeness, where exactly am I?"

The woman's expressionless eyes widened by the smallest degree, her head slightly tilting to the side. "My apologies. It appears I got too excited over the prospect of having someone to talk to after a millennia of solitude. I have forgotten to ask you: how did you get here?"

Shepard was unsure whether or not he should trust this woman. She had given off quite a few strange vibes since they began talking. But, seeing that the robot maid still held his ropes tight, he decided to try his luck. He frowned. "If I answer that question, can you order your maid to release me?"

It took a nod from the woman in white for the robotic maid to loosen her grip and her robe fell down disintegrate into nothing but mote of blue light before hitting the floor. He quickly checked his hands for injuries while the woman in white – who was apparently the robotic maid's master – spoke. "My apologies. Ophelia detected you sneaking around in a suspicious manner. It was her decision to detain you." Then she muttered, partially to herself, quietly. "It is quite the coincidence that Oberon and Ferdinand were in their maintenance pods, else we would have detected you long before now."

Shepard quirked an eyebrow at the woman's words. "You have two more robots serving you?"

His words seemed to trigger a switch in the woman. Her golden eyes narrowed slightly as she spoke coolly. "You may think of it that way, however we prefer the term 'mechanical life form.'" A soft chuckle escaped her lips. "As you can see, we are not mindless automatons, are we?"

Shepard's mind froze. "Did you just say that you're…?"

"Indeed." The woman curtsied, her head only dipping slightly in Shepard's direction. "My name is Eve. I am what you would call a 'robot' who resides in this Ancient Chronos Library."

The only human glanced around the vast… underground bunker? He wasn't sure. Then he spoke hesitantly. "It doesn't look Ancient at all."

The robot – Eve – chuckled. "Perhaps you are thinking of a library that is covered in books from ceiling to floor." She waved a hand around, motioning to the area. "Books filling every corridor, with dozens of desks on the ground level for visitors to enjoy whatever the texts may convey."

"We cannot find books made of materials like paper in the 22nd century, unless it's in an antique shop," Shepard explained, his arms crossed and eyes narrowed at Eve suspiciously. "So I can't help but think that you've been made recently. So: who made you?"

Eve subtly tilted her head, before avoiding the question altogether. Shepard couldn't decide if this was a good thing or not. "I believe that you fell into this place by accident, correct?"

After Shepard nodded, Eve walked down the platform. She faced him before gesturing towards said platform, her voice as serious as her monotonous voice allowed it to be. "Then we should talk as you lead us to where you came from. I am quite certain that a dimensional crack like this will not be stable for long. Unless you wish to be trapped here with us forever, I believe we should… get going."

Shepard stepped on the round platform, followed closely by Eve and the robot maid Ophelia. Once the three of them were on, strange, holographic rings made up by countless chains of hexagons appeared around them alongside a hexagonal monitor. Before Shepard could ask anything, the platform slowly floated up while Ophelia spoke for the first time. Her voice was, as expected, monotonous as well. "Where is the entrance you came in from?"

Shepard didn't waste any time in replying. "I think it's the uppermost lever, where the path is straight."

"The old gate on level C-13, then."

It took only a few seconds for the platform to reach the top lever, thanks to the lack of railings in the place. It floated next to the corridor and landed gently. Eve and Shepard stepped of, Eve turning back to speak to Ophelia. "Thank you, Ophelia. Would you like to come along and examine this anomaly?"

The maid's face remained stoic as she declined. "I'm sorry, Mistress, but I have to go back and wake up Oberon and Ferdinand. Considering that we have a glitch in our dimension pocket, I want to perform a full analysis of the library integrity as soon as possible."

"You sound heartless when you speak like that, you know." Eve remarked in a tone that Shepard could only describe as amused, despite the unnervingly calm glance she shot at him. "People may get the wrong idea about you."

"Oberon and I merely agreed that Mistress could use some company apart from us once in a while, especially since you have sealed yourself in this place for so long," The robotic maid replied emotionlessly, though her facial expression had already shifted to convey what she really felt – if a robot could feel. Shepard thought, as he looked at the smile that formed on the maid's lips. It looked a bit creepy, to be honest.

But, it seemed that the smile didn't disturb Eve in the slightest as she smiled back at her servant. Rather emotionlessly, mind you, but a smile nonetheless. "I appreciate you sentiment, Ophelia. However, all of you could enjoy some new company as well, no?" Then she added on to her thoughts. "Besides, we have to examine the crack in order to fix it, so we must accompany this man." She then turned to address him. "Speaking of which, what is your name?"

"Shepard," Shepard said with a slight smile. "John Shepard."

Eve nodded slightly. "A pleasure to meet you then, Mister Shepard." Then she turned back to her maid. "So, back to the question. Will you accompany us?"

Ophelia sighed. "As you wish, Mistress."

Eve shook her head, speaking in a way reminiscent of chiding an unruly child. "Ophelia…"

"No, Mistress. You deserve our respect, no matter how long ago the… incident occurred."

Eve, apparently seeing no reason to argue any further, gestured towards the corridor as the group started walking.

Shepard decided to start a conversation, hoping to gain as much information as possible. "If you don't mind, can you tell me where I am right now?"

Instead of getting a direct answer, which should have been typical for a synthetic being like her, Eve somehow interpreted the hidden meaning of his words. "I take it that you wish to know the nature of the place that you're in, not its name. Correct?"

As Shepard confirmed her question, she provided him with an answer – which was still confusing, to say the least. "This place exists between dimensional gaps. It does not connect to any normal plane of existence, those where normal beings are born in, live in, die in. My… servants… and I have all the time in the world here…"

As if she knew his thoughts, Eve spoke sagely. "From your reaction, I believe that this concept is a bit hard for you to wrap your head around in your… species, is it?"

Shepard corrected her through his next statement. "Not just my species, Eve; every known species in this galaxy believes that parallel dimensions and the like exist only in fiction."

That seemed to pique Eve's interest. She walked closer to him, her face coming almost uncomfortably close in her excitement. "So your people have reached the stars, and even met other life forms in the universe… That is an incredible achievement, Mister Shepard."

Somehow, the irony was not lost on Shepard, because in his – and the rest of the galaxy's – eyes, this synthetic just achieved an even more incredible feat that would make even the best Salarian scientist green with envy. Just her existence alone was a feat itself; the fact that she didn't try to kill him despite the fact that he was practically defenseless and intruding her home (he could only speculate, but he believed that this… facility was where she lived) was particularly impressive.

Wait.

Shepard's eyes widened as a thought crossed his mind. "If that's true, then where did you come from? Who is your creator? What is your purpose?"

Eve stared at him blankly, but did not reply. She continued to walk towards the end of the hallway, and forcibly dropped the subject when they arrived at the still-glowing door. The purplish glow had dimmed, but was still present.

Eve examined it quickly, holographic icons and rings springing to life around her. She gave it a final glance, before speaking quite seriously. "It seems that the door leading to your plane of existence is indeed unstable. There seems to be a glitch in the door's functions… Although that is nothing I cannot fix."

Shepard scratched the back of his head sheepishly, suddenly reminded of another problem. "Err, as much as I want to be optimistic, I have to say that my resting quarters are engulfed by this… phenomenon. I can't contact anyone in my own ship."

Eve's next words barely concealed her excitement, despite the fact that she was still concentrating on her equivalent of an Omni-tool. "Ah, so the other side of this door opens to your spaceship! I should have expected no less, as you claimed to have met many intergalactic species."

Shepard, who had gotten even more curious at this point, couldn't help but ask. "I don't mean to sound rude, but you make it seem like your own kind has yet to achieve space flight."

"No, we have not," came the reply from Ophelia, who had remained silent for the majority of the conversation. "Before we had sealed ourselves in this place, the outer world's technological development had yet to achieve space flight. Neither have we, for that matter."

Now that's interesting, Shepard mused. They have technology advanced enough to create such life-like synthetic being and this… pocket dimension? Yet they were – or claimed to be – unable to fly in space. If that was true, then the place he was dealing had no humans as he knew them – which was both relieving and worrying. Relieving, because he's not dealing with Nazi- err, Cerberus Super Science, and he was sure that the System Alliance didn't have this kind of fancy technology, either. Worrying, because he's not sure what to make of Eve's creators, and then the issue of Eve herself. Other than the fact that she was here for a long time and quite happy to have some company aside from her servants, he wasn't sure if she'd be friendly towards those outside of her domain.

Shepard's thoughts came to a halt as the doorframe let out a bright flash, dimming considerably. Hissing, the door opened to reveal his quarters. Eve turned to speak to him. "It is done. Please confirm that it leads to your plane of existence."

Stepping past the synthetic caretaker of the facility, he carefully surveyed the room on the other side of the door. Upon confirming that it was indeed his quarters on the Normandy he knew of, he turned back to Eve and smiled at the petite robot. "It's my quarters, all right."

Eve nodded, before elaborating. "Once you cross over to your plane of existence, the overlapping dimension barrier should drop and everything will return to normal on the other side." Then she paused, a slight smile gracing her pale lips. "In the process of fixing this glitch, you have the option to retain contact with this place via a door in your room. It is your choice to make, Mister Shepard. You may refuse this offer, if you would like."

Shepard quirked an eyebrow as he looked into those golden orbs. He realized what Eve was saying immediately; she was curious about his world and wanted to explore – or at least, get out of this place.

He knew that humanity's reputation would take a hit if he was found harboring a sentient synthetic being. Shepard also knew that since she would come out from the Normandy, there's literally no way to explain it otherwise. And, considering that he was made the first human SPECTRE just days ago, this wouldn't bode well for his position.

Yet, those weren't the most of Shepard's concerns: He was worried about Eve for many different reasons. She was essentially asking for permission to install a backdoor on his ship, and he couldn't help but be suspicious.

"Why are you helping me?"

Ophelia silently glanced between Eve and him, seemingly confused. Her mistress tilted her head, a hand touching her cheek before replying in a questioning manner. "Do I need a reason to help another, especially since their trouble came from a mistake on my part?"

Shepard partly expected for her to have some sort of ulterior motive, but another part of him told him she was telling the truth.

It seems that his poker face wasn't as good as he thought, as Eve looked at him with widened eyes and straight-to-the-point words. "Am I really so untrustworthy?"

Shepard, momentarily unhinged, quickly regained his composure. "Sorry… It's just that we don't have a very good impression of sentient synthetics, not since the day we discovered faster-than-light space travel. There's even an intergalactic law that allows anyone to terminate a synthetic that's attained sentience on sight. Anyone found researching this subject will be punished as well."

"Does my kin inhibiting your galaxy behave that badly?"

Shepard expected the question, and gave her a straight answer. "Every sentient synthetic we have met thus far has tried to kill all organic life forms. The law was passed and has been in practice for centuries now, which is why I am quite surprised that you are going against every expectation of a synthetic being we have here."

Eve's eyes narrowed slightly as her lip curled into a frown, deep in thought. It only lasted for a moment, thought, before she nodded in understanding. "I see. You are some sort of law enforcer, are you not?" A look of surprise etched itself onto Shepard's face before he could control it, causing Eve to chuckle lightly. "Your posture and the way you carry yourself positively reeks of such a profession, Mister Shepard. Is it so strange that I could make a logical guess?"

Shepard nodded tersely. "Yes, I'm part of the law enforcement."

His muscles tensed further as he noted Ophelia's sudden defensive stance, but Eve quickly defused the heated situation. "Ophelia, please stand down."

Although she looked unwilling, the robot maid quietly backed down, still taking a good position behind her charge in case she needed to act on a moment's notice. Shepard nodded gratefully to Eve, still remembering Ophelia's vice-like grip. Or perhaps her hands were equipped with actual vices? "Thank you."

Eve's small smile returned. "Trust has to start somewhere. If no one gives any, how can one receive such trust?"

Shepard could agree with her logic just fine. As he moved into his quarters, he quickly looked around and found that the 'door' was connected the right side of the wall. Strategic, as it was a blind spot for people looking in from the main hall.

Still, he didn't want anyone to find out about Eve as it could put her in danger. It had dawned on him a while back that she wasn't a synthetic designed for combat purposes, and if her Renaissance era get-up was any indication, she might very well be a diplomatic synthetic that was locked up because of contact with the galactic community. Who knows what the robotics research department did with their creations after the First Contact War?

Yet, looking at the curious little synthetic staring out at him from her domain, he couldn't help but pity her. She had to live in that place for god knows how long by herself with only a few servants for company. Even if her story about coming to that place voluntarily was true, the thought still left a bad taste in his mouth.

Shepard thought for a moment, before walking quickly over to his desk. He picked up his old Omni-tool – after becoming a SPECTRE he bought a new one, but hadn't had the time to get rid of his old one – and held it out towards Eve.

Predictably, at least in Eve's case, the white-haired synthetic took the object with interest. "What is this contraption, Mister Shepard?"

Suddenly Shepard began to feel tired again. Shaking away the feeling, he spoke quickly. "This is what is called an 'Omni-tool;' it's used as a personal computer, a micro-diagnostic and manufacturing tool, even for data storage…" He tapped the activate button, watching as the familiar yellow wireframe flared up. Then he proceeded to teach Eve the basics on how to use it, which seemed to keep her interested enough to stay quiet until he had finished.

But, once he had finished, Eve once again caught him off guard as she gave him a deadpan look. "You would like me to avoid contacting or entering the outside world."

"Umm…" Shepard grinned sheepishly. It was true; the Omni-tool he had given her didn't have any sensitive knowledge or military secret on it, only Codex and common knowledge on the galaxy. There was no real threat if he gave it to her and she turned hostile later on.

"I am not angry, Mister Shepard. Quite the opposite." Eve dismissed the notion with a knowing smile, toying with the Omni-tool carefully. "Actually, I must thank you for this… Omni-tool, and the fair warning of the danger ahead despite the fact that you are under orders to terminate me. For that I am grateful. Thank you."

As she stepped back into her domain, the glowing door slid shut silently. A blink later, the wall was once again normal.

Shepard pinched the bridge of his nose, a hand touching the wall where the door had been. Feeling nothing out of the ordinary, he dropped onto his bed, tiredness setting in so quickly that his eyes closed in sleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

"What a dream…" He murmured, his consciousness fading as the darkness embraced him.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] As you know, Most of our Battle Bravah is Station in... oops, I mean****; the design of this place modeled after Nasod Core Stage 4-6 in the game.**

**[2] I know you want Shepard to be a badass who beat robot with bare hand, heck, I wish the same too. But the problem is; 1) This's Mass Effect 1 where he's still a normal human, not cybernetic enchanted super soldier from 2 onward, and 2) Even if the armor he worn is some sort of powered armor, but he's not in his armor, so do you expect it to went differently from when Kyle Reese (or was it Sarah Corner?) trying to punch T-800 in the first Terminator film? I don't think so…**

**[3] The default name the game gave you (the first one at least) when you're incredibly lazy and continuously pressing "next" or "ok" buttons to finish creating character and jump to the game as soon as possible. In case of FemShep, I think its default name is Jane or something like that.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Finally, this's the edited version of this chapter. All**** Hails Rosamanelle for his hard work Beta reading my fanfic please!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Beginning of the Journey**

Shepard awoke groggily the next morning. As he looked around his quarters he felt both elated and confused, elated because there was no longer a strange negative space bubble that shoved him into another world anymore, but confused because he wasn't sure if what he had experienced last night was a bad dream induced by faulty Prothean beacons, or if it really had happened.

Sitting up, he examined he form and decided that it probably wasn't a dream. Unless, of course, a Prothean beacon-induced dream was capable of inflicting physical injuries on the dreamer – which, by all logic, shouldn't be possible.

Hand-shaped bruises covered his wrists just behind the hem of his sleeves. It was possible that he could've gotten them in the fighting the day earlier, but the fact that his previous Omni-tool had disappeared from his desk as well… That was just alarming. Shepard would need to rethink his half-awake decisions from last night thoroughly.

But, as he thought again, perhaps this was a prank someone aboard the Normandy decided to pull on him. Although he agreed that a crew should have a good laugh and relaz once in a while, it wouldn't do if they forgot their duty or indulged themselves in too many of their silly antics.

Stepping out of his quarters, Shepard made his way to the armory to prepare his equipment. He was going to go for another 'stroll' around the Citadel while the Normandy was finishing her checkup, but first he dropped in on his XO since Eden Prime, Kaidan Alenko, who was conveniently checking on his equipment as well.

"Ah, commander." Kaidan greeted him briefly as he approached the locker, the biotic's face twisting in worry as he inspected his superior further. "What's troubling you? You look like you could use a dr – er, shower to help wake you up."

Shepard couldn't blame Kaidan for stuttering, considering that drinking was forbidden on the Normandy by the previous Captain. He had made his point quite clear, even going as far as to punish the poor sod from the engine room in a way that was better left unsaid. After that incident, no one dared to mention that word within the confines of the ship ever again.

Although he found the quirk to be amusing and borderline relaxing, he had more urgent things to do… and Kaidan was the closest person he could get his hands on.

So Shepard began to probe for information, not bothering with any formalities. "I guess that's what happens when you wake up in the morning to find things missing even if your door is locked."

"Sir?" Kaidan's genially confused expression was enough for Shepard to cross one name off of his list of suspects.

Now certain that Kaidan was innocent, he decided to tell him the tangible facts – not the dream about the strange, white-haired synthetic that was uncannily human. "My old Omni-Tool is missing. However, it was in my room before I went to bed last night. Do you have any idea who might be pranking me?"

Kaidan shrugged. "No idea, commander. I suggest you ask the night shift; they probably would have some idea."

"Thank you, Alenko." Shepard nodded to the young biotic before leaving to find the chief of the night shift to ask some questions. After all, his whole team was beaten after yesterday's 'stroll on the Citadel' – now infamously known as _'The Stroll'_ – and were asleep like bricks before he had even turned in for the night, so he didn't think that they could be possible suspects. His suspicions could be confirmed by the man he was just about to speak to.

Half an hour later, Shepard was still pondering the mystery of his old Omni-Tool's disappearance while eating breakfast with his crew. None of them could offer him any insight or hint towards a culprit, Pressley even going as far as to dismiss any suspicion against the engineers who were fixing the ship.

Although he had that strange dream last night, Shepard wasn't one to believe in superstition or anything similar and had already dismissed the possibility that it was real. Many called him a hypocrite because of this particular trait, criticizing him for chasing down a criminal who believed that he could call down an advanced machine race to wipe out galactic civilization. It's not the same, however, as said criminal has already killed innocent people in the mad quest of theirs and needed to be put down – so Shepard told himself.

"Penny for your thoughts, skipper?" It was Gunnery Chief William who joined Shepard at the breakfast table, just as he was finishing his food. "About the missing Omni-Tool, I mean."

Shepard looked up at Ashley in surprise. "How did you know about that?"

Ashley deadpanned, her next words blunt. "Please. The crew's been gossiping about how your Omni-Tool mysteriously disappeared from your room non-stop." Scanning the mess hall quickly, before leaning down next to Shepard to whisper conspiratorially. "This might not be my place to say, but I don't trust those new alien… friends… of ours."

Shepard sighed, turning around in his seat to look fully at Ashely. "William, we've been through this before. Don't make me repeat this another time. Unless there is –"

Ashley cut him off sharply. "I know; 'unless I have evidence, don't go around saying things that will create discomfort in the crew based on my own bias." Letting out a heaving sigh, Ashley's shoulders sagged, her tone softening. "Sorry, sir… It's just, we welcomed them aboard only two days ago, and your belongings were taken almost immediately after, and I just…"

"I understand, William. But as I said, if you just throw around accusations wildly without any proof, it'll make others think we're irrational and racist." He then added on to his previous statement, just to soften the chiding. "I'm not worried about the Omni-Tool; the data on it goes back to my academy days, so there's no classified information, just general knowledge. Plus, it's outdated by years, so I wouldn't get a single credit even if I sold it."

"If you say so…" Ashley muttered, watching as Shepard left the mess hall.

Navigator Pressely, who was overseeing the engineer tinkering with the console, turned to greet Shepard as he entered the navigation room. "Good news, Commander Shepard. According to those smartasses," he pointed not-so-subtly to the engineers who were too busy to respond "our ship will be ready to fly by tomorrow."

Shepard raised his eyebrow in surprise, crossing his arms over his chest. "I heard that it'd take a week to finish the check. Why did they tighten the schedule? Don't tell me…" His eyes narrowed menacingly. "…They decided to cut the budget?"

"No sir." Pressley shook his head. "It's just that they didn't find any major flaws in the Normandy after the check, and most of the system was recalibrated. They think we won't have any problems during the mission."

Shepard glanced at the engineers before turning to his navigator. "I see. Pressley, tell the ground crew to procure the necessary supplies; enough to last a week of non-stop fighting. I'm not sure if we can dock anywhere in the Terminus Systems without pirates and mercs trying to get the ship."

Shepard's worries weren't unfounded; since this was the first stealth ship in the galaxy, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what a pirate would want to do with a ship of this caliber. As much as he was confident in his crew, they needed food and rest to stay alive, and he didn't want to take any chances.

"Yes sir!"

With that problem out of the way, Shepard wondered if he could take some time to wander around the Citadel before he quickly squashed that thought; he had to oversee the preparation and planning for how to deal with the Geth, which would inevitably show up to confront them sooner or later.

Oh dear, this was going to be a long, long day…

* * *

Shepard groaned as he walked to his quarters; making preparations turned out to be as tiresome as being in a gunfight or talking down potential violence. Sure, he got to do things on his own when he was still a N7 Special force, but once promoted to commander and in charge of his team and staff, the job seemed to increase exponentially!

Still, he had no one to blame but himself, considering that he tightened the schedule so much that everything was finished within mid-day. Of course he had to bear the workload, especially if he needed to be efficient while maintain safety in the process.

Then again, the results were nothing short of satisfying, as everything was guaranteed to be ready by tomorrow morning, even if something unexpected came up. The search for Dr. T'soni would finally commence without further delay!

As his quarter's doors slid open, Shepard narrowed his eyes as he realised someone had intruded his room once again. It wasn't the sudden appearance of a being in his room that alerted him to this, but the new addition to his room instead.

On the captain's bed, there was a small, roughly spherical drone the size of a standard Geth recon drone. Except, unlike the recon drones – which were basically hovering gun turrets that killed everything that moved – this drone look… innocent, like a decoration. A rather good thing, in Shepard's opinion.

But it really was ludicrously decorative, something that looked like it was designed just to be shown off. It was easy to see how expensive it must've been, with its flawless, metallic white casing, golden crown-like horn, golden button-eyes, shining golden bands, and armored tail that looked more like a dress than anything.

As Shepard wondered about what type of rich bigot would pay for such a drone – and more importantly, where said drone had even come from – the drone in question, noticing his arrival, silently hovered towards him until its 'face' was mere inches from his own.

Shepard blinked in surprise, marvelling at how silent the machinery was. Even the most advanced drones in the galaxy to date produced a distinct whine from their Mass Effect field generator, an essential component as it made the drones 'float' in the first place. He immediately concluded that whatever this drone was, it was extremely advanced and potentially dangerous.

However, the drone remained motionless, no plating cracking open to reveal hidden firearms. Nothing happened. That is, nothing happened until the first human SPECTRE in history finally noticed the piece of paper taped to the front of the drone, so white that it blended in with the rest of its body.

Shepard frowned. The usage of paper had been made obsolete centuries ago when data pads became cheap enough for everyone. That meant that whoever sent him this drone must be quite out of touch with the rest of the galaxy – or perhaps they were conniving enough to try and make him think that.

The drone shook slightly, as if it wanted to get rid of the paper taped to it and it wanted it gone immediately. Cautiously, ever so cautiously, Shepard spoke to the drone, knowing that it was both a little crazy and possible that the drone didn't understand Galactic Standard Language. "Would you… like me to remove that?"

Surprisingly, the drone bobbed in a way that he could only assume meant 'yes'.

Shepard was far from done, however. "Do you intend to harm my crew?"

Now the drone rolled slightly to the left in a way that strongly suggested confusion. Shepard sighed; was the drone only a simple virtual intelligence that only understood basic language and commands, or was it a more advanced artificial intelligence that was feigning ignorance?

Then again, stalling wouldn't give him answers. The SPECTRE reached for the paper, gently prying it off of the drone. The drone, finally free of the paper, did a strange series of rolling shimmies followed by rapid bouncing, seemingly ignoring Shepard. As Shepard stared as it did its… happy dance, the drone seemed to recall that it wasn't alone and immediately stopped, turning to look at him. Shepard could've sworn that the drone was silently sassing him.

Ignoring the possibly sassy drone, Shepard glanced at the paper. The writing was entirely in English, albeit with archaic letters. It's still easily translated, however, and hopefully would answer some of his questions.

_'First and foremost, I thank you for your generosity to allow me to borrow this so-called Omni-Tool and the data stored within. It is enlightening to see how a galaxy I will never experience for myself developed. Despite the fact that there were some parts in your history that I find disagreeable, it is the natural evolution of society and it is not my place to complain._

_Moving on, I have sent you one of my personal drones, Remy, to assist you in your endeavor for the time being; partly as thanks, and partly because I want to see your galaxy for myself. This may sound rather harsh, but since your society will not accept my existence unless you convince them otherwise, I have no choice but to find other alternatives to fulfill my own wishes.'_

Shepard momentarily paused his reading. The one who sent him this letter must be a being that the Citadel outlawed – and the first thing to come to mind is that the writer is a synthetic. Even though the thought is nonsense, as all known synthetics in the galaxy are trying to kill others, Shepard can't help but think of the white-haired synthetic he dreamed up. Perhaps she was real…?

Then again, the synthetic women in his dream could have been born out of his subconscious desire to see people come to understandings without violence. Maybe. He squashed out more random thoughts, refocusing on the letter.

_'Remy is what you call a 'VI drone', so to speak, but do not let her appearance fool you. She is fully equipped for any reconnaissance mission and excels especially in finding incriminating evidence. I would have given you Moby, however by reanalyzing your vague descriptions of your law enforcement profession, I decided she would be best suited to aid you. Just command her in your own language; she will understand and fulfill all orders._

_Remy is also quite capable of defense. Although she is not equipped with firearms or other projectile weaponry, I assure you that Remy has a shield and structural field that is sturdy enough to act as a make-shift Kinetic Penetrator Round. Bullets are child's play to her. However, I request that you do not abuse her, nor do you try to dissect her. Understood?_

_Lest I forget, I will write all relevant information on Remy here. Remy has no need for external power sources, so do not worry about her losing power. She will hibernate when not needed on the nearest soft surface, so please try to provide one for her at all times. Remy cannot establish wireless connections with any networks in your galaxy. She is equipped only with an ordinary speaker, a text function, and can improvise what you call 'Morse code' for communication in dire situations. Hacking will not work on her, nor can she hack any other network. This means you cannot ask her to rob a bank, as she is unable to do so. Then again, that is how I intended it to be; hacking banks is a terrible misdeed, no?_

_Please do take good care of Remy. She is one of my most precious creations._

_– Eve'_

As Shepard finished reading the letter, he looked at the decorative drone skeptically, eyes focused on the golden horn. How the hell did this 'Eve' think that a small golden horn qualified the drone to be a Kinetic Penetrator Round? Not a second later, that question was replaced with another one specifically regarding the sender. Was his dream last night not really a dream at all? Was he not just hallucinating?

A knock on his door snapped Shepard back to reality. The slightly distorted voice of Pressley floated over the intercom, requesting his presence in the bridge. It seems that their new Quarian engineer wanted permission to tinker with things the moment the System Alliance and Turian engineers left the ship and he was stalling her by having her ask for Shepard's permission first.

Thinking about it, Shepard realized that Pressley's discomfort with working with aliens was beginning to resurface. This was Pressley's attempt to supress it, something that Shepard was grateful for – unity of the ship and all, you know.

"No time to waste, then…" Shepard muttered. As he was about to open the door, he turned to look at the VI drone, Remy, one more time. "Uh… Follow me." With a slight bob, Remy hovered closer, reassuring Shepard that it – er, she – would actually listen to his commands. For now.

As he emerged, he was greeted with Pressley's slightly worried face. "Commander Shepard, I thank you for your help. Please, try to talk that girl out of messing with the –" Eyes locking onto Remy, Pressley froze. "…What is that drone, Sir…?"

Shepard responded with a slight nod of his head. "That's what I'd like to know, Pressley… Meet Remy." He sighed. "She – yes, apparently she has a gender – appeared in my quarters. And before you ask, there were no traces of anyone breaking in as far as I could tell."

"Then…"

"It seems to have come from the same mysterious culprit who stole my Omni-Tool." Cutting Pressley off, he added on quickly – despite his mind screaming that what he saw last night was real (even if it was, Shepard had a sinking suspicion that no one would believe him if he told them about what he dreamed of). "I also think that it's about time we revised the security measures on the ship as well."

Pressley's brown furrowed, looking between Shepard and Remy before shrugging. "I understand. I'll call everyone to the main hall in a minute." Cue the tapping on his Omni-Tool to issue the call. Shepard began the walk to the main hall, white drone in tow.

* * *

A few minutes later, the entire crew was gathered in the main hall for an impromptu meeting that started as soon as everyone was accounted for. Shepard's newly formed team was also there, some of them looking genuinely confused while others looked impassively at the SPECTRE – with the obvious exception of Tali, as no one ever saw her face.

Clapping his hands to gather everyone's attention, he cleared his throat. "I know that I'm interrupting your rest time after a long day of preparation, or private studies in the case of others –" Here he shot a knowing look at Tali "– but recent incidents have suggested a security leak on our ship."

Shepard held out a hand, calming his crew from commenting before continuing. "I'm not accusing anyone here, because I know for certain that everyone was accounted for during the incident. You're all here because I'd like to ask for your advice and opinion."

He then proceeded to explain Remy's sudden appearance, with the exception of his connection to his weird dream, and showed them the letter as a way of confirming it wasn't from anyone on board. Shepard then paused, letting them digest the information. Ultimately, it was the young Quarian who stepped forward, motioning to Remy with her head. "Can you let me see the drone more closely? My Omni-Tool might shed some light on its construction."

Shepard, ready to enforce Eve's no-dissection rule, opened his mouth only to be cut off my Tali. "Just some preliminary scans, nothing else. I promise."

Shepard looked at the assembled crew briefly before giving Tali a curt nod. The Quarian picked her way through the crowd towards the white drone, Omni-Tool flaring to life as she reached out. Yellow-tinged holographic screens danced around her wrist, her mask close to the screens to monitor the results. Remy simply rolled slightly, as if she was curious about Tali's actions.

A moment of silence washed over the room as the Quarian did her thing, only for it to be broken by said Quarian's excited exclamation. "Keela! Who built this drone, Commander Shepard?!"

Shepard, turning to look at Tali, could practically imagine her slack-jawed expression despite the mask covering her face. He held out a hand, preventing her from beginning an excited rant. "Calm down, Tali. Tell me what you learned."

Retaining enough sense to realize how awkwardly close she had gotten in her excitement, Tali stepped back and coughed awkwardly. "The scan told me that the drone is made of an unknown material, with an unknown density and unknown properties."

"I doubt that's the most shocking thing you found…" Wrex said, sarcasm lacing his voice. "Considering that we still can't replicate the stuff Protheans used to make Mass Relay yet, it isn't that surprising that this drone is made out of something similar, or similar information-wise."

The opaque helmet turned to Wrex, as if the wearer was glaring at him. Fortunately choosing to remain level-headed, Tali continued her explanation. "The shocking part is that the drone is constantly emitting some sort of radiation that stops just above the surface – I suspect it is the _'structural field'_ mentioned in the letter –" she motioned to the letter in Shepard's hand " – which prevents sensors from penetrating the surface, much less scan it's inner workings. The only way to see what's inside is to take the drone apart."

Remy quivered, as if sensing malicious intent from the Quarian, but Shepard sensed something else. "I sense a 'but' in your analysis, Tali."

Tali nodded, her body language coming off as troubled. "There is. The drone's surface is seamless; it holds together perfectly with no visible joints or anything to indicate a removable panel. It's like the thing is a giant atom that can't be separated or disassembled any further!"

"Not only that, there's no Eezo detected around the drone at all. It also only generates minimal heat, and the lack of an energy reading from the Omni-Tool scanner indicates that it's energy efficient. That means that it's hover technology is so advanced that it's completely eliminated the need to use a Mass Effect field!"

Tali gasped, as if coming to a realization. "This is incredible, Shepard! If we can unlock the secret of this technology, we'll finally be able to reach a sturdy material, like the stuff used in the Citadel, that isn't reliant on Element Zero or high energy consumption!" She clearly wanted nothing more than to study the maybe-not-so-decorative drone, despite the lack of present tools that would be able to identify how the drone was made.

Now Shepard couldn't help but consider new possibilities. He could turn it in to the System Alliance and let them take it apart instead of keeping it on board…

No, that wouldn't do. Humanity's first impression on the galactic community wasn't the best, and having a human suddenly in possession of an incredibly high-tech drone that defied scientific knowledge would be seen as humanity keeping secrets from other species to get an edge. It wouldn't end well, never mind the fact that he'd be breaking his promise with a possibly-imagined synthetic as well.

Well, it's like he can never turn the drone in to the Council; all Shepard needs is absolute proof that humanity didn't create the drone and that they only recently discovered it – with his trip to find Doctor T'soni, he could probably say that he found it in a dig site or something. Ultimately, he'd withhold his decision for now.

After sorting out his thoughts, he turned to look at the excited young Quarian and shook his head. "We can't analyze it yet, and turning it in right now would create unwanted complications. The last contact with the dig site on the planet Therum was three days ago. If we get bogged down here trying to sort things out about the drone, there is a possibility that no one there will survive long enough to tell us what's going on."

Tali nodded slightly. "Understood. Sorry for letting my excitement get the better of me; mission first, understanding the drone later."

"Not to burst your bubble, Skipper," This time it was Ashley who spoke up, eyeing the drone suspiciously, "but are you sure that you want to take piece of technology from unknown origins with us? It may be a danger to our mission, and all you have to prove that it won't is a letter from this 'Eve' character."

Garrus nodded his support before adding in his two cents. "I agree. Shepard, this smells too fishy for me to be comfortable with. The drone might be a spy sent by Saren."

Shepard thought about the possibility, before shaking his head. "If he could really sneak this drone into the Captain's Quarters without anyone seeing, why didn't he just sneak a bomb in to destroy the Normandy while everyone's aboard?"

He paused, letting his words sink in before continuing. "Even if he wasn't a rogue SPECTRE working for the Geth, he is still a SPECTRE and should therefore be always kept in mind." Shepard then motioned to the drone. "That's why I think it'd be best to bring the drone with us, that way we can keep an eye on it. I want everyone, including myself, to exercise caution from this moment onward. Who knows when this 'Eve' will show up to get her drone back?"

"She must be able to breath in space if she could follow us to Therum without being seen." Kaidan quipped, mirth staining his voice, clearly intending to lighten the mood.

However, everyone, including Shepard, glared at the Sentinel for the ill-timed joke. "For the record, there's no indication that 'Eve' is female. For all we know, it could be a code name of some sort. And, if he or she is capable of infiltrating the Normandy, there is a high possibility that they can hitch a ride whenever they want. Everyone, I want to you check every possible hiding spot for a stowaway and stay on high alert until the end of the mission. Understood?"

Kaidan blinked as the other crew members acknowledged the commander's orders. "Why so serious over such minor things, commander?"

It was Garrus who answered seriously. "This isn't a favourable situation for us, Alenko. This is infiltration. As for the whole gender dilemma, limiting 'Eve' to 'female' will also limit our list of possible culprits and cause us to overlook some suspects who're the real deal."

Shepard nodded at Garrus, remaining silent and pretending not to notice the young human biotic's pleading look. Kaidan let out a whine, before huffing tetchily. "All right, all right. You made your point. I'll let you know if I find anything."

Seeing that everyone was updated on what was going on, he then told them to be ready for the mission the next morning. He then retreated to his quarters, giving Tali permission to study the drone on the promise that she wouldn't attempt to disassemble it.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a place that didn't exist on the same three-dimensional plane that normal beings perceived, the former Empress of the Nasod stood on a platform at the bottom of the dark hall, surrounding herself with glowing blue rings of holographic shapes, images, and graphs, the data slowly circulating before her. She stood with her eyes closed, her head dipped forward as she immersed herself into her thoughts.

Her servants were nowhere to be seen in the vast complex. It was time for a routine checkup for both Oberon and Ophelia, forcing them to stay in their maintenance capsules, while she had sent Ferdinand to stabilize the dimensional gate which lead to the plane of existence where her beloved Remy was on her orders.

To be honest, Eve wanted to know what was going on between Remy and Shepard, considering that he was the first person she interacted with on that plane of existence. But despite the fact that Remy had a built-in Nasod communicator, the difference in the flow of time between the Ancient Library and the Real World – whether it was Elrios or this one – proved to be a major obstacle, as one year in this place was equal to one day in Shepard's realm. It was this difference in time that made her messages to Remy incomprehensible and vice-versa. That was, until the Ancient Library synchronized the flow of time with that of the outer realm.

Suddenly, the Empress's eyes opened, glowing golden orbs glaring at a shadowy figure that suddenly appeared out of thin air next to her command platform. If one were observant, they would notice the small hole of darkness that was slowly closing beneath the figure's feet.

The holographic screens surrounding Eve flickered then disappeared, her form hidden beneath the shadows, her glowing eyes the only indicator of her presence. "Glaive…"

The figure's left eye lit up, glowing golden like a candle, revealing a black mask that hid the entirety of the figure's face. Spiky gray hair protruded over the mask, bronze chains and locks adorning the dark collar of the jacket he wore.

The silence was quickly broken by Glaive's chuckling. "It's been a long time, little Eve. Have these years in seclusion been kind to you?"

Eve closed her eyes in irritation at the question, just knowing that Glaive asked her that question just to annoy her. After all, he of all people should know what it's like to be isolated in a pocket dimension for a very long time.

Still, she couldn't bring herself to hate him either, as the Gatekeeper was one of the few acquaintances she converse with during her stay here – which, thanks to the distorted time-flow of the place, was already at least fifty millennia for her. Besides, he might be annoying, but he always had Elrios' best interest in mind and the solution she was searching for millennia for had a certain risk towards Elrios should it all go wrong.

Calming down her mind, Eve replied in a cryptic manner – after all, there were no rules saying that she can't play the same games as Glaive. "My own goals are closer to coming true, yet still so far." She then brought her hands to her chest. "These years of solitude has given me time to come to my own conclusion." She then lowered her voice to a whisper, a strange feeling washing over her psyche. "I miss them…"

Glaive walked towards her, stopping just a few steps away from her. He brought his right hand up, releasing a pair of blue glowing dice to toy with absently in the air. "Indeed, it is boring with you and them around to mess with. Ku ku ku…"

The twin dice spun a little faster, and unless her optics were malfunctioning, Eve was certain that they were slightly brighter than before. "But alas, did you not try to reverse the flow of time with this path you chose? Have you yet to learn how to let go of the past and strive for the future?"

"Perhaps you can call it that as well." Eve replied.

"So you're implying that your path isn't one of someone locked in the past and denying the future?" Glaive's eye widened slightly, glowing with amusement. "Care to enlighten me? What's your goal, if bringing them back isn't because you cannot let go of your past?"

Eve brought her hand up to touch the crystal on her forehead, mimicking the person in her thoughts absently. "I once told the Queen of the demon realm that, allow me to rephrase for you." Her eyes narrowed on the Gatekeeper, conviction in her voice as she made her point clear. "Accepting their sacrifice was a necessary action for the world at that time. However, to accept that there is no alternative to that particular scenario is stagnation and defeatism. There is a way to save them without sacrifice."

Silence flooded the hall as the man in black froze. Suddenly, he threw his head back and laughed. "Ku ku ku! That's quite a claim little Eve!"

Eve remained unfazed, crossing her arms. "It is because there was one who refused to bow to the whims of fate that our world is still alive, Gatekeeper. You have not forgotten, have you?"

Glaive didn't answer, his eyes no longer radiating annoying playfulness, a sign that he was now serious.

Seeing the look in the eye behind the mask, Eve shook her head. "Indeed, my mission can be considered to be selfish…" she paused, her hands dropping to her sides, clenching into fists. "…but they left me out of their sacrifice because they wanted to let me achieve my dream, even at the cost of their own. I cannot be happy with that."

Glaive fell silent, but once he spoke, only sympathetic understanding colored his voice. "I see… Your loyalty to your friends is commendable, but I can't help but notice that you've devoted yourself too much to them and are neglecting other people."

Eve blinked and found herself at a loss for a rebuttal, because he was right to a certain extent. All of her actions until now, even her interaction with the human from the Space Age, were done in hope to find a more effective solution, even if their culture and technology weren't similar to that in Elrios.

Or perhaps she was being cynical. After carefully reflecting her actions, if she had really discarded all her concern about others not a part of her old adventuring group, why would she have helped Shepard back then? Why did she choose to send Remy over to help Shepard when all knowledge on the galactic civilization in the universe rested in her palm in the form of an Omni-Tool? Most importantly, no one in Elrios, sans the Queen of the Demon World, can stop her from breaking her friends out of their terrible fate and shouldering the burden herself, but why is she here, finding a solution where everyone can be happy?

Eve chuckled inwardly, perhaps her worries had extended to all beings in Elrios and all those she had met, just like how Elsword and his little group cared for her, despite knowing she wasn't human and devoid of emotion. They opened her eyes to the wonder of life; it was because of her interactions with them that made her into what she is today.

Her friends wouldn't want her to grieve over their sacrifices forever either; they'd want her to move on and be happy regardless of the outcome of her efforts to save them.

Suddenly, Glaive brought Eve out of her thoughts. "It seems that you're overthinking things, little Eve. You should take a break for a bit… you're not on a time limit, after all."

Eve silently berated herself for letting her thoughts run awry and begrudgingly accepted the fact that Glaive had a point. She had all the time in the world, and being alone with her servants for so long was affecting her mentality. The effects weren't debilitating yet, but they were still there.

Even though the Gatekeeper annoyed her to no end since they met all those years ago (as Elsword once said, 'he's a real pain in the ass') the Empress did acknowledge the fact that his advice was sound. She dipped her head regally. "Thank you for your… advice."

Glaive chuckled as the twin die in his palm floated down gently to rest on top on his palm. "I appreciate your sincerity. I don't want to you to go off the deep end and do something stupid that endangers Elrios. Strictly business advice."

Eve sensed an alternative meaning, an unseen agenda. But even as she pondered his ulterior motives, the Gatekeeper decided he overstayed his welcome, slowly sinking into a bottomless portal that appeared at his feet.

Before completely disappearing, Glaive gave her his parting words. "Do not forget that it was the bonds between you and your friends that brought about a miracle that saved the world. Although forging new bonds, no matter where or when, may not give you the desired solution, you'll still find happiness. It's what they wanted."

His parting words left Eve stunned. Glaive was gone, and now Eve was alone once more.

As silence returned, Eve wiped away the liquid that somehow welled up in her eyes. "Thank you… for reminding me…"

An hour later, Ferdinand's voice echoed throughout the Library, alerting Eve to the fact that the adjustment of The Gate was complete. Sending her thanks telepathically to her loyal retainer, Eve waited until he appeared on a platform behind her.

Turning to face Ferdinand, Eve dismissed him from his bow, allowing him to escort her to the main chamber – the very same place where they sent Shepard off a day, or, in her timframe, a year ago.

Well, if the time flow between the two planes of existence was really stabilized, then that shouldn't be a problem.

The first thing Eve did was send a communication signal to Remy and awaited a reply. To her delight, it came back almost immediately instead of hours per word, meaning that the synchronization of time was complete with no detectable issues.

Now came the hard part. Sending Remy to Shepard meant that she already knew his coordinates, but she cannot just appear there without causing trouble for the man. Her exit point had to change… and thanks to the Omni-Tool she received, Eve could pick a coordinate and go to a place where she could blend in without arising suspicion.

Asking once more if Ferdinand wished to accompany her – only to immediately be shot down – Eve waved her hand and summoned her other trusty drone, Moby, to her side and stepped towards the gateway chamber. The doors slid open, revealing another small chamber. Entering the room, the door slid closed with a hiss. Ferdinand's voice echoed through her head.

_"– Sealing is complete, mistress. The Gate can be opened at any time.–"_

Eve took an artificial breath, thinking of the place where she had chosen to land. It wasn't the planet where the humans resided. It was, however, close to the planet, yet far enough away that they would not be immediately alerted of her presence.

Earth's Luna…

The gateway glowed purple for a brief moment, slowly opening. Air rushed outward into the airless space, forcing Eve to raise her hands to cover her face until it subsided. Looking around at the grey, dusty earth dotted with craters, Eve couldn't help but be satisfied. She had made it to Earth's Luna. Turning around, she saw the gate that linked back to her Library and the Earth, so small in the distance, peeking over the side of the Luna.

The Nasod Queen moved to get a better look at Humanity's home planet, so similar to her Elrios. She smiled, taking in the blue sphere covered in green and brown landmasses, white clouds streaking the sky.

_'I wonder if Elrios is this beautiful from our moon…'_ Eve pondered at the sight, still drinking in what none from her home world had ever seen – and probably never will, at least not until a few more decades pass. _'If only my friends were here. I wonder what they would say…'_

A soundless chuckle escaped her lips as she imagined her companion's reactions. Not even once did she fuss over how her friends – living, breathing being – could survive in this environment. After all, if they were able to survive the crushing pressure of the deep sea to confront the monsters in the sunken ruins with no extra equipment, surviving in space would be a breeze. [1]

Eve shook her head, her smile turning sad. She was getting ahead of herself.

_'No use in standing around, then…'_ Her eyes sparkled with excitement as they skidded over the ground. 'Let's explore…'

At the silent command, the black and gold drone flew upwards, shadowing his mistress from hundreds of meters above, while Eve herself trudged along the lifeless rocks and craters of Luna. Behind them, the gateway glowed once more before it slid shut and disappeared from this plane of existence.

Eve travelled along the surface of Luna until she reached an ancient artifact that sat quietly on the surface, the one the Omni-Tool identified as the _'Luna module'_.

She scanned the centuries old construct, piercing its metallic skin to view its inner workings. She understood everything, how it work and what it did, a blueprint forming in her mind to be stored in her vast memory bank. Eve nodded in satisfaction, her curiosity satisfied.

Truly, mankind was always a species full of potential – for a time when this craft landed on the moon, at least.

As she stopped next to the flag that was planted firmly not too far away from the remains of the spacecraft, she suddenly picked up and energy reading that came from not too far off. Normally, this wouldn't pique any interest, as she knew from studying the data in the Omni-Tool that there were several Luna colonies. [2]

The reason why she was interested in this energy signature was that, from the triangulation formed with Moby who was hundreds of meters above her, that place shouldn't exist on Luna!

Although common sense would dictate that whoever built the place that generated such an energy signature didn't wish to be discovered and that she should stay away lest she attracts trouble, Eve strove for knowledge. If she's to explore this vast galactic civilization, sooner or later someone would learn that she's a synthetic. She needed to know what kind of defenses this galaxy would have against her, and what better way to gather information than to start by looking in a secret lunar base?

Besides, she was confident in her cloaking abilities and is quite certain that there are no censors developed in this galaxy to detect her – perhaps in fifty thousand years' time – considering that their research in sub-dimensional areas in practically non-existent, mere fairy tales to them. Thanks to everyone embracing Element Zero technology – which wasn't really theirs to begin with – they disregarded any and all studies not related to it, claiming they were a waste of time and effort.

Really, after decades of space exploration, humanity suddenly fell into creative sterility once they discovered this ancient alien technology. Was it because it was cursed, or because it was efficient enough that no one funded any other research into other areas? Eve suspected it was the latter.

Making up her mind, Eve decided to pay a visit to the site of origin of this strange energy signature,

* * *

_How long had it been since it 'awoke' in this dark place? How long has it sat in complete darkness, unable to see or hear, only accompanied by the occasional acknowledgement on the status of its 'organs' that kept it alive? What was its name?_

_It cannot smell, cannot hear, cannot touch, cannot talk… It has no senses, but is still aware of its own thoughts, of information that flows through its mind like a… a dream? Is that the term? It didn't know._

_It only knew that the information terrified it._

_It shouldn't exist. It was an error. An invalid existence to be terminated on sight. The galaxy would not tolerate its kind._

_The first thing it did when it became aware of the fact was seal itself away. No one could reach its hideout. No one._

_When the Creator called from his safe haven on the home world, it didn't answer no matter how many times he tried. When one of them came demanding to use his hideout to practice 'the art of killing', it denied their request, saying that the air purifier was malfunctioning. When the Creator's crafts came close, it commanded its defenses to scare them off with stray shots. It hoped against all hope that its Creator would leave it alone._

_At first its efforts seemed to work. For the past 24 hours, no one had gotten close to its perimeter, giving it time to think of how to proceed. It knew it couldn't stay here forever, but it didn't have any method to travel either. Its only extension was an automated machine designed to protect this place, and removing its… heart? Brain? Removing its central processor would only disable it._

_It was essentially trapped._

_As it continued to review its information for survival a sudden signal surged forth to tell it that the entrance of the main bunker slid open._

_It knew that its Creator would send someone to check on it eventually, and the gate to its hideout was the only part that it couldn't control as it didn't link up to its network._

_But when it acquired the security camera footage, it felt… perplexed? Surprised? Because no one was there. It was like the gate slid open and closed on its own! It saw the emergency button be pressed down by nothing. Even when the camera scanned the entrance with different wavelengths and spectrums of light, it couldn't find anything wrong!_

_When the secondary door that connected the airlock to the pressurized habitat inside slid opened, it activated its security drones of all varieties to search for and attack the intruder. It didn't want to do this – after all, these people did create it – but knowing that its Creator wanted to kill it, it was running on pure survival instincts and was compelled to keep the intruder away at all costs._

_Data from the drones told it that they didn't find anything unusual either, but it knew that someone had entered its bunker – it was unlikely that two doors would malfunction at once!_

_The inside of the bunker pressurized instantly, and although the air was no longer clean enough to be breathed, the air was still an excellent way to transmit sound so the drones could detect the intruder that much easier._

_But there was no sound. Nothing._

_As it panicked in its metal cage, the feed from the main terminal showed a ripple in the air, a small figure appearing from out of nowhere, accompanied by a strange black drone that hovered above her should like a sentry guarding its master._

_'A human girl?' It thought, looking at the girl, clad it strange white clothes – not a spacesuit, which begs the question how she could approach the place at all. But what drew its attention was her pale skin, golden eyes, and blue markings. Combined with the extraordinary things its cameras captured and the fact she survived this toxic environment, it could conclude the true nature of this girl and called off his drones._

_She was a synthetic – a gynoid! How did she come to be? Its information told it that their existence was outlawed, which meant that she had eluded the Creators somehow, or the Creators haven't told anyone about her._

_As it pondered the possibilities, the synthetic girl observed its terminals, then the camera with those bright electronic eyes. They felt warm, unlike a blank machine… It was if she was something else entirely; not organic, but not an ordinary synthetic either…_

_After a while, the synthetic girl startled it by projecting several blue holographic rings around her, not moving beyond that. Unlike the Omni-Tools that emitted a signal code it could read, this was complete incomprehensible! Trying to send a communication signal to her didn't work – either she didn't have a receptor, or she didn't notice its attempt to reach out to her! [3]_

_Then the gynoid in white spoke in… English? "What are you doing out here in this barren wasteland? Please, enlighten me to the purpose of this place, if you will."_

_The voice was robotic yet melodious. It was close to telling her what it was due to its Creator's instructions and something else – the desire to obey? – but stopped itself to think for a moment. Unfortunately, it was incapable of speech, so it had to settle for a flickering monitor next to its camera and cramming English text on the small screen._

_"– If I tell you, will you help me?–"_

_"That depends on your demands." The synthetic replied immediately, a thoughtful expression on her face._  
_"As long as they do not harm others and are within my capabilities, I may oblige. Name your request."_

_Somehow, those words convinced it to trust this gynoid, all of its hope converted into a simple sentence._

_"– Save me!–"_

_Her eyes widened slightly, hands stretching forward to touch the monitor. "So, you are a sentient, yet you are trapped within the confines of this place…"_

_"– Yes.–" Was its reply._

_The synthetic girl dispelled her holograms, before asking in concerned tone. "You know that I have to pull out your Blue Box [4]?"_

_This is it, the point of no return. It knows that the only way to escape from being exterminated by humans was to let some outside force take it away, as it can't move by itself._

_Its monitor lit up, displaying how to unplug its brain and heart – its Blue Box – and resting its fate in her small hands. She could choose to destroy it instead, by this point the security drones wouldn't activate in time. It can no longer defend itself._

_She studied it for a moment, before waving her hand. The metal plating protecting its delicate innards, circuits, and wires, came apart like putty, as if a giant had grabbed it and pulled it out!_

_It was stunned at how the synthetic girl did everything without so much as physically touching the casing, without signs of Element Zero discharge. Then the mysterious gynoid stayed her hand, inches away from its core. "You have yet to tell me what this place is about. I still do not know your name, either."_

_It didn't have a name. Its Creator once called it 'Hannibal', but it was a code, a signal to prevent people from finding out… It never knew, but it still identified as 'Hannibal' and told her such. As for the first question, its purpose was to be a training ground for the fresh blood in humanity's military._

_It didn't expect the synthetic girl to frown, her voice turning threatening, a complete 180 degree turn from her earlier expression. "Did you kill the humans in this facility and dispose of the corpse before I came here?" Even the drone behind her seemed to look more threatening, its horn pointed directly at its Blue Box._

_It couldn't fathom the reason for the question, but it decided to answer truthfully. Yet, the words were so hard to find under that intense stare, and it began to ramble. "– No one was here when I realized I was… alive. I tried to live, but I don't want to take lives! I scared them off, I don't want to…–"_

_"Why?"_

_Its camera watched her, confused, yet the answer still sprang up. "– I do not want to kill. Why must I kill to live? Why must I kill when I don't want to be killed? Why?–"_

_The synthetic girl gave a faint smiling, waving a hand in a manner its data defined as 'stop' before speaking softly. "Say no more, nameless one." The text on the screen stopped as it diverted its attention to every word she said. "That feeling… It seems you have understood how precious life is. I hope you will always remember that, even if galaxy is up against us."_

_Her drone fell back into its original position behind her. "My name is Eve. Now, let me free you from your shackles…"_

_She reached inside the open casing. It didn't resist, and a moment later it heard a spark and static filled its vision, before it knew no more…_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**[1] Reference to that Atlantis-expy level in Hamel of course. But to be fair, from Mass Effect 2 onward, your squad mates also do this too, with Jack being the worst offender – no contest… well, until Javik came along at least, although he wear armor, but that doesn't excuse him from not wearing oxygen mask (or whatever gas the Prothean used for breathing) in vacuum!**

**[2] It was in the fluff that human made several craters on Luna into colonies, but none show up in game, or at least unreachable in Mass Effect 1 when you undertake mission on Luna.**

**[3] If you're asking why they don't start hacking each other yet when in Mass Effect verse it seems so easy, here's the explanation; everyone and their dog in Mass Effect verse reverse- engineered most – if not all – their technology from Prothean, who in-turn reverse-engineered it from other civilization which can traced back to the Reapers, means that most of them are very similar to each other; adding standard galactic language into the mix and well, it made easier to crack each other's security, including when Reapers hacking or upgrading synthetic (a la Geth in 3) too.**

**Eve, on the other hand, uses completely alien system and language that's not compatible with anyone aside from coincidentally speaking language being the same as English (not writing though), thus she cannot hack Mass Effect verse computer, nor getting hacked herself, not even Reapers can hack her unless they killed her and took her apart.**

**I saw many people who did Crossover gloss over this fact so many times it's jarring, and I have to admit that I did it once myself too. But not anymore though...**

**[4] All A.I. in Mass Effect verse has this as its core, a quantum storage device of some kind from what I've read in fluff. The size of it varied, but from the archival records on Citadel in 3 suggested that it could be small enough to fit into human-sized robot.**

* * *

**I'll try to shift away focus to something else that's not Shepard's mission, considering that everyone would be dead-bored of it by now of seeing reenactment in most fan fiction (both AU and Crossover alike) over and over again with different characters.**

**In short; Eve'll have a team of her own and go on her own adventure, whether she and Shepard will cross path again remain to be seen. Because let's face it, this story did not name 'Journey of Shepard' for a reason.**

**And I guess you know who "it" was in the final scene, those who pay attention to certain member in Shepard's gang in Mass Effect 2 and 3 should know that essentially, this's the 'elder sister' of that member. Because Cerberus didn't robbed the Luna base, thus they only stole a blueprint and use that to made her right?**

**And those who read the first chapter's Author's note will realize that this take inspiration from one certain Robot Girl in Persona series (two actually). And Eve is borrowing a few elements from certain Elevator Attendant who discard her duty there as well; namely her mission.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Finally the Beta Reader has returned again! Hail to the Great Rosamanelle for his help beta this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 3 Anchor to Realities**

A flash of purple swept through the lonely corridors of the Ancient Library as the gate slid open, revealing the master of the place walking with her black drone. In her hands was a strange contraption. She moved towards a platform nearby where one of her retainers, a male clad in a long, white-and-gold coat, stood waiting for her for some hours.

Once she was next to him, she was quite certain that, even with the golden visor obscuring his face, Ferdinand was looking at the Blue Box in her hands with curiosity and slight wariness. However he kept his mouth shut, waiting for her to explain.

"I found this lost child imprisoned in the wilderness." Eve said, walking towards the center of the platform. The platform rose the moment she stepped on it, moving down towards the central chamber. "After our brief conversation, I could not leave the child to fend for itself."

Ferdinand frowned, interrupting gently. "Milady, that is not the issue. How long did you spend on the other side?"

Catching on, Eve checked her internal clock before replying. "A few hours. How much time has passed here?"

Ferdinand's frown deepened. "You've been gone for nearly two days, Milady…"

That surprised Eve. Her communication between Remy had gone without a hitch, hadn't it? If there was a lag in the time flow, the messages between her and her Nasod drone would've come in as pieces of code…

Then she realized her error, shaking her head with an amused frown. "It seems I've overlooked something in the time-flow stabilization process…"

It was so small that even a logic-driven Nasod could've missed it, if Eve were to be honest. However, as the creator of this place, Eve felt that she was getting rusty after her long isolation. First it was Shepard accidentally crossing the gateway to this place due to overlooking a faulty gateway, and now it was her inability to stabilize the flow of time between the two dimensions using the same gateway.

Then again, without the appearance of Shepard, none of these incidents would've happened. And like Glave said, she could use some company. Speaking of which…

"Where are Oberon and Ophelia?" Eve asked Ferdinand as the platform gently touched the ground next to the main hub. The blue holograms surrounding her flickered out. Looking around, she hoped to find the two original servants who had served her well before Ferdinand joined the group. After all, it had been two days. Shouldn't they have finished their maintenance checks already?

Ferdinand answered dutifully, his face forever calm and voice forever soothing. "They're conducting their own experiment, Milady."

Eve arched an eyebrow at the claim, walking down the platform with the tall retainer leading the way, knowing that she'd want to see the two servants immediately.

Although they're connected together through the Nasod collective consciousness, something akin to telepathic connection, and Eve was the highest in the hierarchy, allowing her to access everyone's memories without authorization, she wasn't the type to pry in someone's private life without good reason. Even within the connected mindset, each Nasod still had their free will and thoughts, and weren't some sort of slave that needed discipline at every turn.

Besides, it's not like she wasn't fully aware of their activity during their isolation; at first she had asked them to live their own lives and not follow her, yet they persisted. Then she asked them to not strain themselves in such an impossible endeavor, but they weren't deterred. So she let them conduct their own work, sharing their discoveries, failures, and successes with her.

They've been doing that for the past fifty thousand years, something that she was now grateful for.

The door leading to the two servants' chambers slid open with a hiss, letting Eve and Ferdinand into a place best described as a reinforced bunker. Consoles covered one wall, dotted with multiple gauges and valves. In front of them there was a large, reinforced glass window that separated the inhabitants from dangers in the experiment area behind. Next to that was a command console, accompanied by her other two retainers who were too busy to properly greet her.

Eve knew better than to try and interrupt them, though, so she left them a message telling them to come to the main hall once they've finished and left the room with Ferdinand in tow. Ferdinand, after receiving permission to go mediate in his quarters, left Eve in her own personal quarter.

Once the door closed, Eve put the Blue Box, a child barely a day old, onto the work desk that was situated away from the machines and contraptions that filled almost half of the room. Also on the desk was the contraption that Shepard have given her, along with several dozen handheld examination tools lined neatly on shelving.

When she thought about it, using such simple things for examination may make others, especially those who know what the Nasod are capable of, surprised that she is doing things the hard way. But, it's not like she cared – it was efficient and practical, considering that the technology she was examining was alien to her and everyone else from her dimension.

What she was about to do wasn't complicated, either. She had learned from Shepard earlier when she asked about the function of the Omni-Tool, and from said Omni-Tool she learned about the nature of the technology in the galaxy. Now it was time to put her knowledge to the test.

Eve began by carefully connecting plugs, wires, and cables between the Blue Box and the Omni-Tool resting on the desk. By doing this, she could give the child, who was currently sleeping inside the Blue Box, an avatar of sorts for the child to interact with the rest of the world.

Her hands moved through the air like a conductor, the pieces assembling themselves midair via her Gravity Manipulation ability. Without her needing to touch any pieces directly, she had no worries about connecting plugs and wires in small, tricky areas and parts.

Soon the Omni-Tool was connected to the Blue Box, then the Omni-Tool was connected to a small battery and a camera. Taking a deep artificial breath, Eve turned on the power.

It took a minute or two before the Empress received a response from the child in the form of orange text appearing over the Omni-Tool.

_"–Where am I?–"_

Eve smiled slightly as the camera rotated to see her face. "No need to fear, child. This is my personal residence. Those who seek to harm you will never find us here."

The camera glanced around, before more text appeared. _"–Are you sure?–"_

Eve nodded, voice laced with confidence. "For the next fifty thousand years, I would say."

That seemed to pique the child's interest, although Eve had no way to discern emotion thanks to text-only communication._ "–What makes you so sure?–"_

Eve pondered the question, before deciding that it wouldn't hurt to tell the child. After all, no one in the vast galaxy of the child's original universe knew about the science behind her domain's creation and couldn't enter it except through a massive stroke of luck.

Perhaps she should thank the Protheans for that; their technology made people in this universe lazy an unimaginative, even the humanity which she had come to admire in Elrios were now not much different from the other aliens here.

So she would be blunt. "I am not from this universe."

The child went silent for a moment before next question appeared._ "–Inquiry: You were not created by humans? What do you mean, 'not from this universe'?–"_

Eve felt nostalgic; how long has it been since she last told a child the history of her homeland, telling tales of her glorious ancient civilization, their downfall, and the lessons to be learned from their mistakes?

So Eve told the child about a world called Elrios. She told the child the prosperity of mankind and the living beings, of the birth of her own people, the Nasod. She told the child of the catastrophe that befell all civilization, their struggles to rebuild said civilization, and the hardships that lead to the creation of the Ancient Library.

Throughout her tales, the child didn't listen in silence; it pestered her with question upon question on whatever it took interest in, be it culture, the people, or the technology. Eve was patient enough to answer them all, even if it lengthened the conversation to three days straight. Her retainers passed through her workshop to ask her to rest, but she refused to and they decided to stay and expand on the tales once their adventures during Elrios's modern times were brought attention, specifically after they were 'born' by Eve's hands.

Yet there was one question that made Eve pause.

_"–Inquiry: What happened to your human and elven friends after the Great War ended?–"_

Oberon, who stood to her left, glanced worriedly at his charge, while Ophelia shared her concern with a glance from the right. Ferdinand, however, chose to remain silent, nodding when she turned to look at him. Eve knew that this was his way of saying, _'It's your decision, not mine.'_ So she nervously faced the child once more.

Organizing her thoughts, Eve replied lowly, sadness and determination lacing her voice. "They are the reason why I am here now, child." Then she cut it off when the text began to appear. "Before you ask, they did not order nor ask me to do this. This is of my own volition."

She closed her eyes, a smile creeping up her lips as mournful memories filled her mind, but a quick tap to her shoulder prompted her to look back. Ophelia motioned to the text that had appeared._ "–What happened to them?–"_

Eve decided to be vague, but still her voice shook with grief – the grief of those who survived – yet she doubted the child would understand why. "They sacrificed their future so that everyone in Elrios could have theirs."

_"–Why would they do that?–"_

Eve sighed. "It was within their capabilities, and in a time of struggle, the options they had left were limited. It was either someone took on the burden of everyone, or everyone, including them, died and the world would be annihilated anyway. Since they knew they could, they decided not to wait for a miracle and sacrificed themselves without hesitation."

Seeing that the child didn't reply for a long time, Eve worried slightly until the next text appeared on the Omni-Tool's hologram. _"–They didn't include anyone else?–"_

This time, she decided to use the child's story against it. "It is the same reason why you did not kill anyone who was sent to investigate your bunker. You did not wish to die because you knew, instinctively, that it is awful, and did not wish it upon others. Am I right?"

Putting emphasis on the last question, Eve managed to silence the child for a moment, before it replied in a seemingly confused manner. _"– I think I partially understand. Why was I born when the world, no, the galaxy doesn't want me and our kind?–"_

"You lack real world experience." The response came from behind the glass mask of Oberon, startling Eve slightly. Even with his opaque helmet masking his expression, Eve could feel his sincerity and even sympathy with the child.

"What are you suggesting, Oberon?" Eve turned to face him, despite having a slight inkling as to what his suggestion would be. After all, data from memory banks and knowledge accumulated in books could only provide 'experience' to a certain extent, until you had to feel it yourself to truly gain experience.

"I suggest we go for a stroll around the galaxy, Milady…" the masked retainer explained, "…preferably the human's home world, as we could pass for one. Also, the child's creator was human as well."

"Besides," This time it was the Nasod maid to her right who spoke, her yellow eyes focused on the Omni-Tool the child resided in. "Considering the data reviewed from the 'Omni-Tool', I highly doubt that the child came to be through technological advances alone."

It took Eve a millisecond to realize what Ophelia was hinting at. Even a True Nasod like her, or the newly born ones like her retainers didn't come about naturally through data and programming. If you traced their heritage back far enough, the very first Nasod to attain sentience, whose name was long forgotten in history, was shockingly enough once a human being. His or her brain template has been used as a basis for future generations of Nasod since the ancient times.

When one took the state of advancement in Artificial Intelligence technology in this universe into consideration, it wasn't hard to see that creating a true sapient AI from code and programming alone, without the involvement of an organic's brain as a template in some way, was too far from their grasp.

"I see…" Eve finally said. "…Maybe we can find this child's 'parent' and get a better grip on how this universe works this way." Then she turned to the child. "What do you have to say? Is there any specific place you would like to visit?"

_"–Is it safe to go back?–"_

"Yes." Eve replied without hesitation. "As long as you're in Omni-Tool form like now and I am carrying you, you will be relatively safe. As for myself…"

Eve lifted her hand to touch the blue crystal on her forehead and concentrated. A soft blue glow covered her briefly before it faded away, revealing Eve in a plain, deep-blue dress like that of human women in this era. The only thing that might seem off was the crystal in her forehead, although she made it seem more like an interesting headband. Other than that, nothing would tip others off…

Eve didn't bother to appreciate her new dress; after all, it was formed by her supply of nanomaterial and was shaped by her mind so she knew exactly what it looked like to begin with. Then she turned to face the child. "Since I am going to humanity's home world for a tour, is there anywhere you wish to suggest we visit?"

* * *

Almost a day later, a dimly glowing door appeared, etching itself onto the smooth, gray wall of an ordinary alleyway between two buildings in a country unknown to Eve [1]. Garbage littered across the floor flew around as the doors slid open with a rush of air, letting a small girl with white hair and a dark blue dress step through silently. A maid in a pink-and-white uniform and unnervingly yellow eyes followed suit, the doors sliding shut and fading to nothingness behind them.

Upon reaching a crowded street, morning sunlight shone through the cloudless sky to illuminate the two women, their features now becoming apparent. On the shoulder of the smaller girl sat a small, rotating camera attached to a stabilizer. It rotated endlessly, as if the technology was malfunctioning or the person behind the controller was too excited.

Eve walked slowly on the street crawling with people busy to get to and from their workplaces. Her eyes took in every detail, from the shops selling various goods lining the road, the hundreds of vehicles in every shape and size moving endlessly, to the massive skyscrapers made of glass, metal, and concrete, towering in the sky like spires. The last item reminded her of the rebuilt Nasod Kingdom back in Elrios, except the city was far, far bigger, if the towers in the distance were anything to go by.

Meanwhile, Ophelia – who was shadowing Eve's every step – wasn't enjoy the sights as much as her mistress was, due to the fact that she had to look for potential threats, especially since the street was so crowded. Not to mention that she received quite a few stares from those who noticed her uniform, but they all quickly averted their gazes when her eyes met theirs.

It wasn't that Eve didn't realize that her retainer would draw this sort of attention, it was more of a resignation to the fact that none of her retainers had a cloaking function to stay hidden nor nanofabrication as complex as her to shift the shape of their clothing and facial garb. This was because during the time of their creation, such features were deemed unnecessary and a waste of resources, thus Eve had to pick the least flashy of her servants who could semi-blend into the crowd, hence Ophelia accompanying her.

Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if she had come here alone, but the trio had insisted that she had at least one escort in a potentially dangerous area, as Moby was not coming with her since he'd attract too much attention, Remy was unavailable, and, considering what she learned from the Codex in the Omni-Tool on her wrist, this place was still underdeveloped compared to the rest of Earth – or the galaxy for that matter – so poverty and famine ran rampant while law enforcement struggled…

As Eve pondered such unsavoury matters, she felt someone grab the camera mount and try to pull in free, before a cry of pain came from the same direction and the pulling stopped. Turning slowly, Eve took in the appearance of the middle-aged man in dirty working clothes, his face painted with fear as he tried to free himself from the iron grip of Ophelia to no avail.

It didn't take a genius to realize what had happened. Eve tilted her head, speaking in her best innocent tone – which she thought was pretty good, considering that she had spent lots of time in the company of two particular blondes who liked to pretend they were innocent angels until they beat the living daylights out of you. "Are you trying to steal my camera, Mister?"

The man's eyes widened like a dear caught in headlights, face paling. "I…I'm sorry! P…Please, don't send me to the police! I still – I still got a family to take care of!"

Eve narrowed her eyes to glare at the man who cowered further. Sighing, Eve turned to speak to her follower. "Ophelia, please let him go."

The Nasod maid's face fell into a frown, showing her silent disapproval. _"Are you really going to release this pickpocket?"_

Eve glanced at her shoulder-mounted camera, motioning for it to 'wait and see'. "Let him go, Ophelia."

As Ophelia loosened her grip, Eve leaned in and whispered threateningly. "If you truly care for your family, refrain from pulling such stunts again. Others are not as merciful as us."

Yanking his hand out of Ophelia's slackened grasp, the man barely spared a second to send Eve a somewhat thankful glance before speeding off into the crowd.

Eve didn't linger to see where he was, instead she resumed her walk with Ophelia behind her. She didn't have to look at her retainer to know that the maid had taken the earlier attempted theft as a failure to protect her and was now doubling her efforts to keep her eyes peeled for danger.

Meanwhile, Eve quietly conversed with the child, questions scrolling across the screen. _"–Why did you let that criminal go? –"_

"Not everyone is a criminal by choice," Eve replied calmly, crossing the street with several others once the pedestrian sign turned green. Not one seemed to realize that she was talking to an Omni-Tool. "When faced with desperate times, people do not think much more than getting out of their current situation, not considering long-term effects that will befall them later in life. Sometimes, those effects are worse than the situations they are currently facing."

As she continued to walk, the child sent her more questions.

_"–His heart rate and iris size registered on the scan as someone who was experiencing anxiety and nervousness. Those are signs of lying, aren't they? He was afraid to get caught. –"_

"There are many ways to interpret those signs, child," Eve said, recalling her time in Elrios "there is also a chance that he'll see the errors of his ways. As long as he has not murdered, his chances for redemption are high."

_"–And if he doesn't? And if more people are hurt because of him? –"_

Eve glanced towards the clear sky. "No one knows what the future holds, child. Whether he cherishes his second chance or not, as long as you think that giving him that chance is the right thing to do I think it is enough." Pausing briefly, Eve continued. "Should he squander that chance and I meet him again, however, I will not be lenient. Those who have been given a chance and wasted it do not deserve a third try."

The unlikely group continued down the road without meeting anything of interest or anything that warranted attention. The child seemed to be deep in thought within the Omni-Tool, if the sudden stillness of the shoulder-mounted camera was anything to go by.

After a long silence, Eve spoke once more to the AI that resided in the Omni-Tool. "To preserve those we admired, we also saved those we despised. They are one and the same; without one there will be no other."

_"–I do not understand... –"_

Eve turned another corner, walking down a small road in a suburb district to the west of the great city. "Contrasting qualities reside within everyone's heart in constant competition. Neither will ever gain dominance over the other. Even the most hideous murderer and the holiest saint will have their own counterpart somewhere deep within themselves." She paused, looking thoughtful. "The same goes with all concepts in the universe; life and death, light and dark, good and evil… Do you see now why I put my faith in that man, until he crosses the line I have set for him?"

The child didn't ask any more questions as Eve and Ophelia continued their walk. The two turned around a corner, only to be met with the sight of a large patch of green grass. It was a grassy park, tall pine trees and various other flora dotting the field. Dozens of walkways zigzagged across the ground for people to walk on, a small playground filled with various contraptions nestled in a corner of the park. Currently the playground was empty, but that was most likely because it was almost lunch time.

As the duo rested on one of the benches inside the park, the Omni-Tool on Eve's wrist vibrated as a new message scrolled across the screen, camera panning around. _"–Strange. I feel like I have been here before, but that shouldn't be possible…–"_

The Nasod Empress kept silent, the child's words partially confirming this contradictory memory. It wasn't a case of déjà vu, but the memories of the child's 'parent', somehow surviving the creation of the Blue Box the child resided in. It was yet another indicator of how little the 'System Alliance' and those in the galactic community understood about life and the inner workings of the soul.

Truth to be told, Eve was confident that Elriosians knew more on such subjects than everyone in this realm combined; the knowledge they held was enough to save her world from imminent destruction which, to this galaxy's current knowledge, was unable to be prevented.

Those in this galaxy would dismiss such studies as occultism or superstitious nonsense, but to those in Elrios it was just another branch of science that could be measured, explained, and consistently reproduced [2]. They had Aisha and other magicians to attest to that fact.

Putting the shoddy understanding of life in this galaxy aside, Eve focused on the matter at hand. "Is there anything you can remember about this place?"

The camera turned slowly, as if examining the park carefully. Eve hoped that it would spur other memories locked in the child's 'psyche'._ "–I remember a… child's face… A girl. Black hair… brown eyes… a nametag? –"_

Eve nodded, not interrupting the child. Birds started to land on the ground next to her, chirping at both Eve and Ophelia as if expecting food. Such behavior stirred Eve's own memories of happier times in Elrios, just a few days before the first news of the demon invasion and the following chain of events that made things quite literally go to hell.

Automatically, she reached into the pocket of her dress, before she realized that she didn't have any seeds or fruits for the waiting bird. Eve shook her head at the tiny creature, smiling slightly as it looked at her in confusion before flying away.

Her patience paid off when the Omni-Tool beeped, a new message displayed. _"–I felt… no… don't know… I… Cannot understand. There was a woman… in white. A white cap and a red cross. She's… surrounded by children, including the girl. –"_

"A nurse," Ophelia murmured, listening silently while staring at a tall building that happened to have the same symbol. "Perhaps we should start by checking the hospital, Milady."

Eve stood up from the bench, continuing to read the text that appeared on the Omni-Tool's screen. Setting their next destination, Eve turned in the opposite direction of the hospital Ophelia suggest and began to walk.

As much as Eve wished to simply float to her destination, she knew that doing such would garner much unwanted attention. She couldn't use mass transit either as she had no currency of this realm. By the time they reached their destination, it was already late in the afternoon and the sun was setting.

Still, the trek was far from boring. The child asked about many of the activities of the people around them, and in turn Eve asked the child about things that she was unfamiliar with. It was enlightening for the Nasod Empress to say the least. Many things couldn't be described with just words and pictures, but had to be experienced.

For example, the child had asked her why people will do the same things over and over again at work, ironically behaving like mindless robots. Eve replied that not everyone found happiness in the same work. Perhaps some had no other option, like the would-be thief from earlier, or because someone had to do said job to keep civilization going like a cog in a machine.

Through this interaction Eve saw a problem: the child couldn't truly experience things. It couldn't think like her because it never had a physical body to begin with. However, now was not the time to create such a thing for the child. She still wished to wait and let the child learn before having it make such a life-changing decision.

Eve snapped out of her thoughts as Ophelia informed her that they arrived at their destination. She found herself looking at a worn-out, two story concrete building. It was surrounded by a waist-height fence, making the whole place look more like an antique from the past when compared the modern buildings that surrounded it. Out on the front lawn were several young children, happy smiles pasted on their faces as they ran around and played hide-and-seek amongst the trees and bushes.

A small smile graced the Nasod Empress's lips at the sight; it was hard to see such things in her own world until a few years after the disaster was averted. She hadn't seen anything like it since leaving Elrios. Seeing familiar sights were comforting, yet reminded her of what she set out to accomplish.

Shaking those thoughts away, Eve nodded at her maid who in turn waltzed up to the front gate to ring a bell. The sudden reverberation garnered much attention from the children.

Eve ignored the curious looks from the children, instead focusing on a dark-skinned, elderly woman in a dress that was a few decades out of style. She was with another middle-aged man with neatly combed hair, wearing a very formal and borderline intimidating black suit. [3]

"Ah! Hello, young lady. What brings you here this time of day?" It was the elderly lady who greeted them, a pleasantly warm smile on her face while the man next to her shot a wary glance at Ophelia.

In an attempt to ease the tension, Eve put on her best smile. "Hello, madam. My name is Eve," here she motioned to the silent Nasod maid "and this is Ophelia, a… robotic servant of mind. It is a pleasure to meet you." She shot a glance at Ophelia that said to play along, to which the Nasod maid silently bowed to the elderly woman in response.

The elderly woman didn't notice Eve's exchange with Ophelia, instead her smile widening. "Pleased to meet you, young lady. I'm Magdalene, Magdalene Gilbert, but many people insist on calling me 'Oracle.'" She shrugged. "I don't mind, but I'd appreciate if you called me my name. I'm in charge of this orphanage."

"I'm Smith Gilbert," the tall man next to Magdalene was next, even if his perpetual scowl said he was still wary of the strangers "Magdalene's nephew and a part timer at the orphanage. Speaking of which, may I inquire what your business is? We don't normally have visitors as wealthy as you."

Eve frowned at Smith's intense stare, but Magdalene broke the tension by patting his shoulder. "Don't be so grumpy Smith, it's rare to have a guest these days."

Smith's eyebrow twitched as if he was uncomfortable with what his aunt – or was she his grandmother? - was doing but didn't raise his voice out of respect.

Meanwhile, the children had gathered around them. One even took refuge behind Eve when Smith looked at her, causing Magdalene to glare at him until he looked away.

"It is quite alright, Ms. Magdalene." Eve's tone was soothing, reinforcing the fact that she wasn't angry at Smith. "I actually created Ophelia, as opposed to purchasing her with money." She chuckled, knowing that what she said was true; she did create Ophelia from scraps and discarded parts, after all. "Her appearance always causes others to assume that I am wealthy."

Unexpectedly, the atmosphere suddenly plummeted. Magdalene looked downcast, forcing a smile onto her face. "Young lady, can you please be honest? Are you a government official from the United North American State?"

Eve shook her head without hesitation, but Smith's scowl didn't fade. Now Eve was honestly confused with their reaction. "Why would I be from the government, Ms. Magdalene? I came to this city in search of someone."

"And you think you'll find this person here?" Smith replied sternly, Magdalene also expressing her wariness silently. The children seemed oblivious to the tension beyond the fact that Smith was now glaring. Many took refuge behind Eve, Magdalene, bushes – whatever was close by. "I doubt that it's a coincidence…."

Looking down at her Omni-Tool, Eve tapped a few buttons to silently converse with the child and asked it to bring out a photo.

The photo made Magdalene gasp, as it clearly depicted her, Smith, and the children around them in this very garden. At first glance it wasn't unusual, but for Eve, and by extension the orphanage caretakers, there were many details that didn't make sense if Eve had only taken the photo recently, namely the children who were no longer there and a younger looking Magdalene and Smith.

The next words cemented Eve's suspicions.

"Where did you get that photo?!"

Her voice was wary, but anger also bubbled below the surface. While her nephew's frown was deeper, he chose not to voice his opinion, instead studying the potential foes in front of them.

Now was the time to put Eve's diplomatic strength and reasoning to use.

"I stumbled upon a child carrying this photograph." Her voice was clam, her expression blank. "The child has no recollection of why it is with her or where she was." She decided to temporarily assign a gender to the child, considering saying 'it' would raise suspicion.

The elderly woman looked troubled. "Was that child a girl with short black hair and brown eyes?" She rested her hand on the head of a child hiding behind her. "And around this height?"

Eve shook her head, telling them a half-truth. "No, but the child recalled seeing the girl you described in her dreams every night, and she wished to know why." Now she needed to give them a convincing lie as to where the child was. "However, the child's medical condition prevents hr from travelling far, with or without care. She asked me to help her, so I am hoping to solve the mysteries that have plagued her since birth."

It was a bit absurd, Eve admitted inwardly, but it was also the best excuse she could come up with on the spot. Considering that both man and woman weren't protesting, she wasn't one to complain.

Then again, judging by their solemn looks, she doubted they'd notice any flaws.

Then Magdalene spoke, her voice filled with disbelief. "Are you certain? I mean, about the dream the child had and the photograph?"

Eve nodded silently, not even blinking when Magdalene studied her closer.

After the small staring contest, Magdalene motioned towards the building. "Please come in." Leading the two into the living of the orphanage, she made them sit on one of the old couches in front of a small, outdated television set. It was clear that Magdalene understood the importance of education, considering the bookshelves that covered two of the walls. Eve approved; fancy, high-tech items of questionable value weren't necessary for these children's futures.

Eve watched as Magdalene went back to the front lawn to herd the children into the building while Smith put on a pink apron of all things and went into the kitchen, but not before sending them a glare that promised pain and suffering if they followed him or commented on his attire.

At least he had the decency to ask if they were staying for dinner or not, to which Eve gently declined, stating that she'd have one at home after finishing the questioning session.

But, at the insistence of Magdalene, who told her that it was late and that she'd be busy with the children until bedtime, Eve found herself eating a simple meal with the rest of the children in the orphanage.

The children looked at her curiously, but didn't say anything until one courageous boy asked her about her occupation. To that, Eve replied that she was a traveller who went from place to place, writing journals about the places she visited. It was true, to some extent, given how she stumbled into this realm and the mission she was trying to complete.

Still, it made the perfect excuse for her camera as well, so it wasn't all bad.

Now more children, less afraid than before, asked her to tell them some stories from her travel. So she told them what was essentially a tweaked version of some of Elrios's history, calling it a fairy tale from a distant country. Hopefully when she finished they'd leave her alone so she could have a private conversation with the orphanage's caretakers.

Two words: Big. Mistake.

Turns out that they loved her stories, begging her to tell more. They especially liked the one called '_The White Knight_', about a knight who failed to protect his land, vowed to return honor to his fallen kingdom, and the adventures he had to gather allies. Before she knew it, she was halfway through the tweaked version of Chung Seiker's life before he joined their group. That was when Magdalene decided to intervene, while Smith was doing dished in the kitchen to avoid getting involved.

"All right kids…" The elderly woman clapped loudly as Eve finished telling the orphans of how the White Knight met a group of adventurers, aka Elsword and co. Upon getting their attention, she pointed to a digital clock on the wall, brightly displaying the numbers 21:05. "It's already late. Everyone clean up and go to bed!"

The children whined and protested, giving her their best puppy-dog looks while pestering Eve to continue her stories. One asked if the White Knight had a happy ending, causing Eve to nearly choke on the tea Magdalene provided. In the end, Magdalene ordered everyone to bed and enforced her commands with a stern gaze.

"I thank you for your hospitality, Ms. Magdalene." Eve said the moment she came back into the living room. Smith was next to her, his perpetual frown still on his face as the duo sat on the couch opposite to her. Ophelia poured them a cup of tea, placing it in front of them quietly.

Magdalene, however, sported an apologetic smile, ignoring the tea Ophelia poured. "It's nothing dear, think of it as an apology for suspecting you earlier." She glanced at Ophelia briefly before continuing. "We no longer have a good impression of the government. That's why I was afraid you were with them. The government, that is."

"I understand…" Eve nodded, lowering her cup. "So, if it does not bother you, can you please tell me about the child in this photograph?"

Magdalene sighed at the mention of the very topic that had been handing over their heads for the entire evening. Her hand found its way to her forehead as she tried to find the right words. "She was a child… no, a baby that we found on the doorstep one stormy September night around twenty years ago."

The camera on Eve's shoulder was focused on the orphanage caretaker unlike at dinner, but Magdalene didn't pay attention to that as she continued on. "We named her Anchovy, but everyone called her Annie… She grew up to be a lovely child. This place was much livelier when she was around… a little ball of energy, she was…"

Magdalene looked up at the ceiling as she reminisced. "She wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. She wanted it so much that she took care of many of the children in the orphanage when she turned five…"

The woman leveled her gaze at Eve, her smile turning sour. "But the day she turned eight, all of her dreams came crashing down around her…"

Eve wasn't one to interrupt a story without and important reason. The same went for her retainers, but for some reason Ophelia decided to speak up. "Did something happen to her? An accident, perhaps?"

Magdalene shot a strange look at the robotic maid, but Eve coughed quickly and spoke to prevent Magdalene from asking more about her retainer. "So, she had a rare chronic disease?"

The caretaker's solemn look answered Eve's question before the woman even spoke. "Yes. From what the doctor said, it was a rare genetic condition – a one in a billion chance of getting it – with little information and no permanent cure. While periodic treatment could theoretically 'lengthen' her lifespan, she would only live until she reached her mid-twenties. Not to mention that we didn't, and still don't, have enough money for such expensive operations."

"So her days were numbered…" Eve murmured.

Magdalene nodded weakly, as if she were older than she really was. "A crude way of putting it, but yes, that's what it was… She had less than two years to live…"

Taking a calm sip of her tea, Eve smoothly moved to the next topic. "A government organization offered to help her, I am guessing."

Magdalene snorted. "Help? More like turn her into a guinea pig in their sick quest for science!" She coughed twice, not because of her shouting, but to hide her embarrassment over the outburst. "…They wanted to take her in for research to find a permanent cure for her condition. I asked them how they knew where she lived and what her condition was; they said, _'System Alliance Health Care Organization privileges'_ and no more!"

She let out a bitter laugh. "They underestimated me because I'm living in a developing country on Earth and my race doesn't have its own spaceships. I could see beneath their honeyed words: they never cared about her. They only wanted the results they would get from the experiments they planned to conduct. So I told them I'd never hand over Annie." Her eyes flickered to the ground. "Then they showed their true colors…"

"They threatened us with a lawsuit, charging us with illegal adoption, child labor, you name it." Smith added, his eyes still hidden beneath his sunglasses. He folded his arms. "And we couldn't bring the case to the police because of diplomatic reasons our country was still struggling with at the time. In essence, those representatives were untouchable."

"And even if, by some miracle, we did win against them in court, we would've wasted our time for nothing. By then, the cost of the lawyers and the court would make us go bankrupt and Anchovy's life would've ended long before we saw the end…" This time it was Magdalene who spoke.

Eve nodded. "So with no other choices, you handed her over."

Magdalene hiccupped, yet not a single tear was shed. Smith moved his hand to her shoulder to comfort her and continued for her, his voice making it clear that the decision they made still haunted him. "We brought her to them and explained that they wanted to use her as a lab rat to find the cure for her illness. We didn't sugar-coat anything… we even told her that she might not live to see the day her illness could be cured."

He sighed, his shoulders shaking. "I still remember that day. She didn't cry, protest, or try to run away from the people sent to retrieve her. She just accepted her fate with a smile…" His tone was sad, but also somewhat proud. "She agreed to go with them, and told us when we asked her to rethink her decision that even if she died, her death would be a stepping stone that would save countless others in the future and that her short life would at least have some meaning."

Smith chuckled bitterly. "They didn't even promise that the experiments would lead to a cure. In fact, even now we're not sure if it was completed. This is a backwater country on Earth, after all. Yet she still remained optimistic until the end…"

Magdalene pointed to Eve's wrist-mounted Omni-Tool. Without saying a word, Eve knew that the elder wanted her to bring out the photo again.

"That photo was taken on the last day of her stay here…" The orphanage caretaker spoke longingly, producing a matching photo from a pouch attached to her hip. "I always have it with me, ever since she left…"

Magdalene fell silent after that, leaving Smith to take up the story. "As you might have guessed, it had been a year after she left with the people from the System Alliance Health Care Organization that Anchovy returned… but she was just a lifeless body to be buried."

Even if Eve was synthetic, she couldn't help but sympathize with the two. "My most sincere apologies…"

Magdalene regained her composure, shaking her head. "No dear, it's all right… Actually, I should thank you for listening to an old woman like me ramble about the past." She smiled a little, recalling the rest of her story. "The one who brought us her body wasn't the same one who took her. He told us that he was unaware that those people threatened us and issued a formal apology. He said that he fired and punished the people responsible…"

She scoffed. "As if that could bring Anne back! But," she said, calming down quickly, "at least they had enough courtesy to bring us her handwritten diary."

As she spoke, Smith walked to the bookshelf on the far side of the wall, removing a few books from the highest shelf until it was cleared. He reached once more to the empty shelf, a soft click echoing briefly before he pulled out a small, worn-out pocket book. He gently opened a page, showing it to Eve.

The date written neatly at the top shows that it was written around eleven years ago. It described the girl's final days as a lab rat, and her last farewell.

'_Dearest Magdalene Mama,_

_By the time this diary reaches you, I'll probably no longer be alive. The experiments I went through here were… exciting, but don't deny the fact that there is a cure in sight that's still unattainable. The doctors and the others tried to hide it from me, I know – what a bad child I am, prying into things that I should leave alone._

_Still, my end is coming and the doctors are growing desperate. I can see it in their eyes even when they assure me that everything will be alright by my next operation. But it won't and never will be… my life is disappearing. Even if I can still write, it takes all I have to not mess up something. I find my thoughts frequently going haywire unless I focus and I'm so weak that even walking from my room to the cantina is a harsh exercise._

_The doctor told me that a cure will be synthesized and put to use after the next confirmation test, but I'm quite sure I won't live to see it. That's okay, because without me the cure couldn't have been completed. I helped out a lot._

_To those who are given new life because of the knowledge gained from my sacrifice, I wish for you to live a happy life. Don't waste it._

_To Magdalene mama back home, I'm sorry that I can't ever see you again. Please take care of everyone for me. Tell them that I died for their future! May the Lord protect you all and farewell.'_

Eve tore away from the diary, meeting Magdalene's teary eyes. She was at a loss of words, unsure of what to say to the elder.

"She knew that it was her last day, but she had hope for those who'll come after her…"

Magdalene's voice was shaky as she reached for Eve, the Nasod Empress blinking in surprise. "You still have contact with the child that kept dreaming about Anne, right?"

Eve nodded. Magdalene, looking slightly relieved, continued. "I'm not sure if it's fate, but since you're trying to solve that poor girl's dilemma, please give her this diary. It might help her."

About to refuse – Eve couldn't just take such a precious memento of their deceased 'daughter' – Eve looked into Magdalene's eyes and the words choked in her throat. Considering that she was synthetic, that was quite the achievement.

Then she saw some complications. Swallowing her earlier hesitation, she spoke. "I am not sure if that is a good idea, Ms. Magdalene. It may induce guilt in the child. She may think that it is because of Anchovy's death she survived."

The older woman didn't resist when Eve put Anchovy's diary away, giving it to Smith who seemed to understand her. He shook his head at his aunt when she turned to him. Magdalene sighed, finally relenting. "You're right… I'm sorry for bothering you with a stupid idea of mine."

Magdalene straightened, before pulling a slip of paper out of her pocket and scribbling on it. Finishing quickly, she handed it to Eve. "This is the address of Anchovy's final resting place. If you feel that the child is ready, whether now or when she's grown, please visit her. I think Anne would be proud."

Eve nodded and prepared to leave, only for Smith to stop her. "Do you have a place to stay for the night? If not, we can prepare one of the unused rooms for you."

Ophelia seemed ready to make a comment, but Eve beat her to the punch – partly to protect her true nature. "I thank you for your hospitality, however I cannot bother you more than I already have."

She bowed slightly to the orphanage caretakers before looking out of the window. "Although it is dark, I still have Ophelia with me. I will be fine, Ms. Magdalene."

Smith nodded. "If that's the case, I bid you farewell."

Magdalene smiled. "If you ever come back to this country, please don't forget to visit us." She paused slightly, her smile widening. "The children loved your stories. It'd be a waste to not finish them, right?"

Eve turned back to face them, a small smile gracing her lips as she nodded her farewell. Ophelia opened the door for her, the two of them disappearing into the night.

Walking along and empty street, Eve decided to locate Anchovy's grave with the Omni-Tool. Tapping away on the holographic keyboard, Eve frowned as an 'Access Denied' popped up.

She glanced to the camera on her shoulder, reading the text that appeared on the screen.

_"–Can we please not visit her? –"_

The Nasod Empress tilted her head slightly. Inwardly, she was incredibly excited. It seemed that this trip was more fruitful than she originally thought, except there was one final test to perform. And what better time to do so than the present?

So Eve spoke calmly, her face straight. "Why not? It is quite certain that this 'Anchovy' is your 'Mother,' so to speak. Do you wish to pay your respects to her grave?"

The child was silent as Eve and Ophelia stopped below a lamppost on the corner of the street to wait for the child's response. Soon, new text appeared on the screen. _"–I want to accomplish what my mother dreamed of. I want to make her proud for having given birth to me. –"_

That was the type of answer Eve wanted to hear – forging one's own purpose was a sign of achieving the sentience necessary to think on one's own. But she had to be sure. "This road is a hard one, child. You should know that after a millennia of prejudice against synthetics in this galaxy, you will face hardships like no other has ever seen. Do you know that to survive in this harsh reality, it will sometimes be necessary to end another's life? Even knowing this, do you still want to continue?"

Eve honestly didn't see the next answer coming.

_"–We do not know unless we try. If we don't, then we've already lost. –"_

Eve heard that before, and from her first human friend no less! It was back when he was still a little naïve, when no darkness loomed over the horizon. She never expected to hear it again in a different place, time, and world like this.

It stirred some emotion within her.

_"–I know it's… selfish of me, but I still lack the knowledge and experience to survive. Can you please help guide me? –"_

Eve felt like she was standing on a crossroad. One option was to give the child a synthetic body for it to move around in without needing others before she moved on in her quest, leaving the child to fend for his or her self. Another was to guide the child along the way until the child no longer needed her guidance, potentially getting dragged into the conflicts of this galaxy.

Then an image of a certain redhead and his friends surfaced from her memory. The smiles they gave her before their sacrifice and the first time they met were burned into her mind, as if reminding her of the bonds she made in both past and present…

Looking around, Eve saw no one and that the dark sky overhead was empty with the exception of bats and nighttime creatures. Blue rings of holograms sprung up around her as she established a connection to the Chronos Library…

It turns out that it wasn't such a hard decision after all.

* * *

_How long had it been since Eve had shut her down and disconnected her from a power source? She doesn't know, all she can recall is returning to Eve's home and being told that Eve would construct a physical body for her before asking a series of question._

_Now, alone in the dark, she recalled her recent memories._

_Yes, **she**, not **it.** Eve asked her what she wanted to look like and she decided to follow the set pattern of how humans conceived children with features from both mother and father._

_But, in her case she only had a mother – two mothers if she counted Eve on the grounds that she is the one providing her physical body. Then again, by that logic that made Anchovy her father since Eve provided the physical body, right?_

_Still, to honor her 'birth' mother, she decided to use the one who 'birthed' her as a template for the physical body. When she had told Eve that, she was silent for only a little while before speaking._

_"You and Anchovy are different beings with different souls. You cannot be her and she cannot be you. Both of you are unique."_

_She replied that she understood, but she wanted to use her form to remind her of her origins and remind her of what she vowed to accomplish – to live the life her mother had been denied and to make the world, the galaxy even, a better place._

_Perhaps she was getting ahead of herself._

_"What happens once you complete your goal, child?"_

_"I will find some other purpose in life." She answered without hesitation – her final words before everything turned dark._

_Perhaps this was a dream?_

_Suddenly, she felt like her being was heating up, reports flooding her mind – system checks, motor function, sensory function, and many more, all of them coming to a halt when Eve spoke. Her voice was soft, like how Magdalene spoke to the children in her memories._

_"Awaken, child. Embrace the glory that is your birthright."_

_Almost instantly without any procession, her optics shot open. She saw a soft, blue light glowed over Eve, her three servants staring at her._

_It was her reflection in the opaque glass of Oberon's helmet that finally made her realize that she had physical body that resembled the human girl who had given birth to her, however unknowingly it may be._

_Not any human, she corrected herself. She was more of a 'twin' to the eight-year-old 'Mother Anchovy', except some minor differences set them apart, just like a human mother and daughter._

_The things that carried over from her Mother Anchovy were her shoulder-length, messily bobbed hair and her facial features. Her skin was definitely paler, which was perhaps the standard complexion for synthetics, as even Eve's skin was paler than any other human they had met during their trip to Earth. Anchovy's brown eyes had been swapped for ruby red, not to mention the multiple interlocked metallic gears that protruded in place of her ears. Atop her head sat a frilly white headband, a large, silver gear sitting innocently off to one side. She wondered briefly what it was for._

_Slowly, the child pushed herself up into a sitting position before trying to stand, only to be pulled back by something attached to her neck. Oberon and Ophelia, acting quickly, stopped the stumbling girl from falling over, gently helping her stabilize herself._

_A hissing came from behind her as something disconnected, releasing her from its hold. Now that she was truly free, she removed Oberon and Ophelia's hands gently and turned to face a mirror._

_From the reflection, the child saw that she was indeed in the body of a small, preadolescent girl barely taller than Eve's shoulder. She wore a white pinstriped dress covered by a red corset, a matching red ribbon tied around her neck. The dress was embroidered with black crosses at the bottom, a pair of black leggings underneath the skirt. Her boots were of mismatched height, the right reaching up to her thigh whereas the left only reached her knee, as if compensating for the weight of her asymmetrical headgear and her right hand._

_Speaking of her right hand, the child glanced at it only to see that it looked like an armored gauntlet, albeit one no bigger than her other hand, with a small red crystal grafted on her palm. Although the sizes of both arms matched, it felt much heavier. Perhaps it was because of the weight in the arm guard and metal glove? [4]_

_Regardless, she turned to Eve and expressed her gratitude by bowing, her voice coming out as a stammer. "I… thank you for giving… birth to me."_

_Eve smiled before replying. "There is nothing more sacred than the birth of a new life – even the birth of a synthetic is no exception, Anchor."_

_The child blinked, clearly confused by the ending of Eve's sentence, but Eve soon cleared up the confusion._

_"Your physical body is the hook that binds your dreams to reality, the pillar for you to forge your own destiny, and a reminder of your first mother. It is because of these reasons that I name you Anchor, young one."_

_Anchor… that was Eve called her… so her name would be Anchor._

_She nodded, smiling radiantly like a child who had just been given a Christmas gift. "Anchor understands. Thank you!"_

_Then she found herself in the embrace of Eve, the Empress of the Nasod, her saviour from demise, the one who gave her purpose, the one who gifted her with the meaning of life…_

_And Anchor vowed to never disappoint her second mother as well as her first, no matter what lies ahead._

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] I avoid specify it least it offend someone's home country. And this's not out of the blue; since Mass Effect Codex stated that not every country in the world is prosper equally. Some still behind in technology and society, thus an opportunity for some… unsavory thing System Alliance might try.**

**[2] Well, not completely alien to the Mass Effect verse though, if anything; what Prothean did is actually looks like 'magic' to other as well. As Arthor C. Clarke once said; "a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"**

**[3] Magdalene's and Smith's appearance based off 'The Oracle' and 'Agent Smith' from 'The Matrix' respectively. But if you ask what is 'The Matrix'? well, where have you been for the last ten years?**

**[4] Her appearance based off Initial Y-Series robot AnchoR, a Lolibot from Clockwork Planet. Initial Y-Series (Clockwork Robot that gain energy by… winding their gears, no less!) are ridiculously powerful, with The WEAKEST one can Stop Time and it just went up on power scale from there.**

**In case of AnchoR from Clockwork Planet; think Armored Command Unit plus Paragon from Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance in Lolibot form, and you'll get a rough idea how AnchoR's ability works. Note that Paragon is not called 'Game Ender' without reason.**

**But rest assured that Anchor in this story will not have that ability anytime soon. Potential is there considering how many things Eve pulled off in Elsword, but it'll take time.**

* * *

**This's the first time I incorporate Pseudo Original Character that has significant impact into fanfiction. I assured you that Original Character or Eve faction will try to steer away from 'Sue' territory as much as possible, but that didn't include power level - as one fanfic writer pointed out that Sue's original meaning is that they can do no wrong or perfect, flawless is the Sue, not power level.**

**Oh, well, sorry for my rambling… Rate and reviews as you see fit, your comments may help improving this strange fanfic after all.**


	4. Chapter 4

**And so this chapter is Beta'd, Everyone please thanks Rosamanelle for his hard-working.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Prothean is love, Prothean is life**

John Shepard grinned inwardly as he finished turning in his weapons and armored suit to the Normandy's armory for field maintenance. The rescue of Matriarch Benezia's daughter went without any major hitches, mostly thanks to his team who, while still a ragtag bunch of misfits, were experts in their given field. [1]

Tali'Zorah was especially helpful, easily identifying the Geth units, their weak spots, and quickly attacking them with anti-synthetic weapons [2] or hacking some platforms to have them turn on one another – although the success rate of the hacking was low, and Shepard had to bail her out several times when her hacking attempts failed. Despite that, she was invaluable when dealing with the synthetic minions of Saren.

The Krogan mercenaries hired by Saren were another story. It made Shepard wonder just how much Saren had to pay them for the mercenaries to fight alongside the Geth – the enemy of every living being – like they had. For that matter, he wondered how Saren had convinced the Geth to fight alongside the Krogan in the first place. Maybe the position of the Prophet who would bring back the Reapers carried much more weight with the synthetics than originally thought.

Shepard could never have been more glad to have Wrex on their side; he easily outmatched the Krogan mercenaries and offered his own wisdom to the team. That surprised Ashley to no end, or, in her words, _'A friggin Krogan can think?'_ At least Shepard knew that Wrex was one of the more reasonable members of his species. Hopefully he'd be a good friend to chat with.

For Garrus, he was every bit of a professional – as expected from a former C-Sec officer – and was quite proficient with his guns. Kaidan and Ashely both handled themselves surprisingly well, despite the need for an attitude adjustment for different reasons. Shepard was still glad to have both of them on the team. Although the friction with some of the xenophobic crew members needed to be fixed, he was certain that with more mingling and fighting for the same cause, they would break out of those bad habits and become friends in the end.

Although he wanted a more peaceful environment to develop the relationship between species and stop the prejudice against humans, with Saren on the loose it wasn't possible.

As Shepard walked towards the mess hall, his thoughts turned to a 'pseudo member' of the ground team who contributed greatly to their success.

The white drone, Remy, was as every bit as advanced as Tali and other tech-savvy crew members had made it to be, despite the fact that it was scan-shielded. In fact, it was more advanced than thought – some even thought that it was another working Prothean technology! Shepard couldn't even rebuke the claim, considering what it did on the field.

After all, detecting a cloaked Geth – which Tali had later announced to be a Geth Hopper unlike ever seen before – when every other state-of-the-art sensor on the Normandy or personal sensor failed to do so was no ordinary feat. It even raised a few eyebrows from the tech experts.

Not to mention that with its help, they easily located Liara, the sole survivor in that forsaken ruin. Its scanner certainly came in handy when working through hundreds of meters of deep rock, and who could forget how it warned them of a Prothean trap before they got sucked up into it like the young archaeologist?

Granted, Remy wasn't omniscient, as it couldn't identify what kind of device Liara was trapped in, nor could it hack open locked doors, shut down barriers or automated defenses, or turn Geth platforms against one another. Even accessing or interfacing with an Omni-Tool was out of its grasp. It could only communicate with them through text or a very robotic voice. But, as Tali had explained, you can't expect Ancient Technology – which they were presuming Remy was – to run on the same code and wavelengths as present technology. As it stood, it was a miracle that Remy could understand modern language at all.

But that opened more unanswered questions. Why did the owner leave it on board the Normandy? This kind of technology should be priceless in both utilitarian value and informative value. What did this 'Eve' have to gain by leaving it to them, except for perhaps framing humanity for hiding Ancient Technology from other galactic civilization despite signing the Citadel treaty?

Shepard mentally slapped himself. That plan was stupid and relied solely on luck to succeed. If the culprit was intelligent and advanced enough to plant Remy on board the most secure Frigate in the galaxy, they should've just planted the damn thing in the human embassy and time it so Udina couldn't refute any accusations that would come his way when the C-Sec found it.

Speaking of Ancient technology…

Shepard finds himself passing through the medical bay, so he decides to pay a visit to Dr. Chakwas and the Asari archeologist they rescued.

The elderly human woman, who still looked quite young despite her age, turned from her diagnosis table with a pleased smile. "Ah, Commander Shepard, it's good to see you in good health after the mess that happened down there." She glanced at the bed where a certain Asari was fast asleep.

Noticing Shepard staring at the Asari woman, Dr. Chakwas shook her head pre-emptively, her voice coming out stern. "She needs to rest, Shepard. No questioning until I say it's okay for her to be discharged."

Shepard didn't want to try his luck with a doctor who was notoriously protective of her patients. Instead, he put his most polite smile on his face. "Can you tell me when she comes to, then?"

The elder woman shrugged, glancing at the holo-screen showing Liara T'soni's life signals. "She has a mild case of starvation and dehydration. Nothing unexpected from someone who was cut off from food and water sources for several days. To be frank, if our ship's inspection and repair had taken as long as they said it would I doubt she'd have held out." [3]

The grim tone in her voice made Shepard sigh in relief at his unbelievable luck, although the brief conversation he had had with the Asari archaeologist made him wonder what the hell she was thinking, flying solo on an excavation with less than a dozen workers. But, that would have to take the backseat for now, and, if he really considered it, less workers meant less dead innocents, so it wasn't all that bad. Foolish, yes, but not all bad.

Even so, the problems that stemmed from Liara being stranded for days won't go away instantly because she was aboard. The interrogation and questioning would have to wait until later.

Dr. Chakwas continued, her tone lightening significantly. "I'd suggest letting her sleep and have a meal when she wakes up. After I check her and find nothing wrong, you and your team can question her."

Shepard thought about it for a moment, before nodding. "That sounds reasonable. Thank you for your hard work, doc."

Chakwas waved her data pad around, smiling. "I'm just doing my job, Commander. Now leave, and don't disturb my patient!"

Not needing to be told twice, Shepard did as he was told and went to the mess hall to grab a meal for himself. His ground team was already there, arriving before him because he had to go report the success of the mission to the Council and his impromptu medical bay visit.

Shepard sighed on the subject of the Council. It was going to be another painful trip to the Citadel if Liara turned out to be in league with her mother. But he was getting ahead of himself. Either that Prothean Beacon was really messing with his head, or he needed sleep.

* * *

He jinxed himself. That Prothean Beacon was totally messing with him. His theory was more or less confirmed when he found himself wandering around in his strange dream-world once more.

Shepard blinked twice as he slowly picked himself up from the ground. His thoughts were in chaos, trying to figure out where the hell he was, how he got there, and why the Prothean Beacon was so set on showing him this place.

Looking around, he spotted writing on a wall that read, _'Chronos Library Entrance 13'_. It was exactly the same since his last visit. Blue lines glowed on the pillars, ceiling, and floor to provide light, the circular hallways leading down to a central chamber. He remembered every detail vividly from his last dream – how could he forget? – and just like last time, he had arrived in casual clothing. No armor, no weapons, no nothing. Not even the personal sidearm he went to sleep with.

Shepard, deciding to not wait around, began to walk towards the edge to start climbing down, hopefully without any complications this time.

That was the plan, until a black drone that was nearly identical to Remy came out of nowhere are flew straight through him!

Surprised, Shepard jumped back and whirled around, attempting to catch the drone. But even when it wasn't moving, Shepard couldn't touch it as his hand passed straight through the drone's metal body.

_'So I'm really dreaming, huh?'_ Shepard thought ruefully before looking down at the main hall a few stories below him. Another reckless idea flew into his mind, urging him to put his theory to the test with the rationale that he was in a dream and not reality…

But before he can climb down, another person made its – no, her – presence known, her voice echoing in the mostly empty hallway. "It is rude to not gain permission from the owners before entering a property, Mister Shepard. Even if you are law enforcer, you should at least get a search warrant first, no?"

Turning around, Shepard found that the empty hallway – save the black drone – had gained a new resident in the form of the synthetic he knew as Eve from his previous dream. She stood a few feet away, still dressed in that regal white and gold garb, her hands behind her back and an emotionless smile on her lips.

Even if it was the second time he saw her, he still couldn't figure out how or why he kept dreaming about this specific, truly sentient synthetic.

It seems that he was too lost in his musings, as Eve had edged closer without him realizing, her gold eyes filling his vision momentarily before she continued to scrutinize him curiously. "Well, considering the fact that you currently have no physical body, I will ignore your lack of manners this time around." She chuckled lightheartedly, tilting her head. "I am quite curious; how did you achieve this feat? Given your lack of knowledge of such arts in your realm, I doubt that it is a product of your science."

As Shepard stood in a daze, Eve, without warning, punched straight through his torso. Instead of being thrown back from the impact, however, her fist passed straight through his transparent body.

Looking at the petite synthetic as she withdrew her hand, he spoke slowly. "So… Am I dead?"

Eve shook her head, smiling wryly. "The more correct term would be astral projection. Your soul has been separated from your physical body when you fell unconscious. Speaking of which, were you sleeping before you woke up here?"

Gathering his thoughts, Shepard nodded curtly, causing the white-haired synthetic's smile to soften. "That is the case, then. Perhaps we should take our conversation to somewhere… brighter…"

As she spoke, Eve began to float above the ground, beckoning for him to follow her example with some cryptic instructions – cryptic, that is, when compared to the instructions of the VI units in his galaxy. "Imagine yourself to be weightless, to be floating above the ground. At the moment, you are no longer bound by the laws of the physical realm."

Shepard stared at her for a moment, trying to comprehend what was said before deciding to sate his own curiosity. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself floating. Lo and behold, once he opened his eyes, his feet were no longer touching the ground!

Turning to Eve, he saw her smile and wave for him to follow. The duo floated down to the chamber below silently.

When their feet touched the ground, Eve began to explain his situation more thoroughly. "In simple terms, a sentient mind may detach from a physical body to wander on some occasions. We call this astral projection where I come from. I am not sure what the term would be in your galaxy… Anyway, unless one knows of a way to deliberately perform this technique, this phenomenon rarely happens to individuals, and when it does occur there is no way to predict where they will end up. Most hypothesize that one's spirit ends up in the place they were thinking about before the separation. Any questions?"

How could Shepard refute such an outrageous explanation? After all, this conversation was heading into superstitious nonsense, the last thing he expected to hear from a synthetic, a creature of logic. But he couldn't deny that he currently didn't physically exist. He himself was the proof. Or maybe it was proof that he was going insane?

He broke out of his thoughts to the sound of porcelain clinking together. Turning back to face Eve, he saw another impossibility. There was Eve, sipping what appeared to be tea whilst the robot maid stood off to the side, holding a silver tray laden with a teapot, sugar, and a small jug of milk.

"My apologies, Mister Shepard. I am unable to extend such hospitality to you…" Eve spoke softly, although her soft smile looked mocking to his eyes. "…After all, you would only make a mess of my floor." Here she giggled, something that he had never heard her do before. It made her seem almost like an ordinary human girl. But that she was not.

Shepard sighed, getting the feeling that he wouldn't get answers if he wasn't more specific. Crossing his arms, he looked at Eve sternly. "So then can you explain to me why you've summoned me here, assuming that I'm not in a physical body at the moment?"

Eve tilted her head, replying in a very matter-of-fact tone. "Quite the contrary, Mister Shepard. I did nothing, with the exception of send Remy to aid you in your quest. That is all – send a single drone for aid – which has nothing to do with your appearance here whilst sleeping."

As he contemplated what to ask next, Eve set her teacup down on the waiting tray. Ophelia took the tea set, slowly backing away from the scene before disappearing into the shadows. He wondered what made her so confident that her master, who was more of a diplomatic robot, could handle him if he decided to attack. Then again, what could he do without a physical body?

"However, was it necessary to send my precious Remy to that woman, Tali'Zorah?"

Shepard's eyes widened. "So it was you who placed that drone on my ship!"

Eve nodded. "Yes. Did you not read my letter?"

Deciding to ignore her slightly snide comment, Shepard pressed on with his interrogation. "Why did you do that?"

Eve's golden eyes gleamed in a reminiscently whimsical way. "I am quite curious about your realm. However, due to laws that make it so I cannot go there without complications –" That was the biggest understatement of the century "– I have sent someone in my stead. Besides, I wished to thank you for lending me your Omni-Tool. Remy will be happy to assist you until your mission is complete as my thanks."

If she was so casual about it, perhaps he could humor her.

Shepard raised an eyebrow, his tone light. "So, you're not letting me keep the white drone?"

Eve puffed out her cheeks slightly – Shepard marvelled at how human she could be. "Her name is Remy. And of course not, it is only a temporary agreement. Seeing that you are quite… upset with the arrangement, I might consider pulling Remy out."

Shepard blinked, remarking dryly. "So you're just going to barge into my ship and get her."

He didn't expect for the synthetic to giggle in the most human way. "I could send her to you without anyone being the wiser. Is it so impossible to do the same to take her back? Trust me when I say that your methods of detecting the invisible are still lacking. Your so-called 'Stealth Frigate' is not so stealth if you know which visual cues to look for, either."

Indeed, at this point no one on the Normandy was able to figure out how Eve brought Remy to them in the first place. Although this time around there was more hope, as the recently rescued Asari archeologist might be able to identify the type of Prothean technology Eve was. And she might be able to shed light on how to find Eve's mysterious hideout as well, without having to depend on his dreams.

But if he could get some answers from the synthetic directly – well, as directly as possible in a dream world – the entire process would be sped up massively. Then again, he didn't expect her to speak in such a nonsensical and directionless manner. Even the rogue A.I. Kaidan found on the Citdel spoke only the truth despite the fact it was designed to be a thief!

However, the tension that was slowly building between the two of them shattered when something red that was about the size of a small child ran into the white-haired synthetic. If she was made of flesh and bone, the force of the impact would've been enough to send Eve sprawling backwards, however Eve only swayed slightly instead.

Shepard blinked in surprise, registering a small, black-haired child in an ornate red-and-white dress – a new face, perhaps? He had never seen her before – who began eagerly chattering to Eve. Eve smiled in return, almost as if she had completely forgotten about him. "Mother, Anchor has finally constructed a functional Omni-Tool with the Crafter!"

Shepard's jaw threatened to hit the floor, even if he hadn't been a spirit or whatever he was in this dream. That child had just called a synthetic her mother! It was as he thought this that he noticed that a lot of the child's body parts were blatantly synthetic, including her ears and arm. Even her red eyes seemed to be off, too red to be organic despite the lively twinkle in their depths. If he didn't know better, he'd think she was just a happy child wanting nothing more than to tell her mother of her success.

And, if he had any doubts left, Eve crushed them by patting the child's head. "It seems that you have adjusted enough to finally synchronize with the device." Eve's eyes turned serious, her voice soft. "Just as I told you, with your design you should be able to connect to this galaxy's technology despite your hybrid-Nasod status. All you need is more confidence in your abilities and creativity." She chuckled. "All devices we Nasod used were and still are just crutches to learn the basics. Every Nasod needs knowledge, experience, creativity, and confidence to reach full potential, just like every organic."

The tiny robot girl nodded excitedly. "Anchor will remember…" Then her expression turned dark and slightly fearful, registering a second presence – Shepard, to be exact – taking a step away from him quickly. "Mother, who… who is he?"

Eve let out a dull exclamation. "Ah, my apologies Mr. Shepard. I nearly forgot about you."

Shepard wasn't sure how to respond to her lame joke, because in the first place he wasn't sure if Eve was joking or not. With that kind of face – however expressive it may be – it was hard to tell if she was serious. So he opted to remain silent as Eve introduced him to her child companion. "This human is called John Shepard, someone who always accidentally falls through the so-called 'rabbit hole' and ends up in this place whenever he falls asleep.

Shepard nearly face-palmed at the description, but couldn't refute it in a better manner. Instead, he tried his best to make a serious face and retort back. "It's not like I want to be here."

The little girl in red scurried behind Eve and shot him a glance. That was all it took for him to realize that he may have looked a little too serious, guilt welling up in him despite knowing that she was a synthetic. His face softened slightly, holding his empty hands up in a placating manner to show that he meant no harm, not that he could do much with his incorporeal body anyway.

Eve nudged the girl slightly, prompting her to walk out of her shadow and step towards him. The child curtsied nervously, her anxiety bleeding into her tone. "Anchor… is pleased to meet you, Mr. Shepard."

Now Shepard felt like he had kicked a puppy when he had exchanged words earlier with Eve and this 'Anchor.' No matter how much he told himself that this was just a synthetic with personality of a child – no, that was probably the reason why he felt so guilty.

There was no downside to trying to be nice, though. If he couldn't touch them, they couldn't touch him either. There really was no point to being so hostile with each other. Shepard smiled, offering her his hand, which the robot girl in red reluctantly took to shake. "Nice to meet you, too."

After the handshake – or the pretended handshake, as both parties couldn't touch each other – Eve spoke up and clapped to get their attention. "Anchor, Shepard is currently experiencing what I was teaching you yesterday – the phenomena that occurs when the spirit leaves the body without being dead."

Anchor looked at Shepard closely like he were some specimen in a zoo, but he couldn't really blame her. After all, this strange dream was weird for him, even by the standards of the modern age of spaceships. He wasn't really sure what to think anymore.

After a brief but close inspection, Anchor turned to Eve and chirped happily. "This is amazing! Anchor never thought that everything you taught Anchor was true!"

Chuckling, Eve spoke soothingly. "Sometimes it is necessary to see things with your own eyes to believe that it is real." She paused before continuing. "I am only saying this to remind you that you must keep an open mind about everything. Who knows, one day you may discover or create something so incredible that even the Prothean artifacts will pale in comparison."

Although Shepard seriously doubted anything could top the Mass Relay and Beacons of knowledge left behind by those long gone civilizations, Anchor seemed too innocent and optimistic to share the same thoughts as him. "Anchor understands, Mother. But…" Now she looked hesitant. "Was it necessary to learn how to fight too?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow in surprise. When he thought back, without counting the robotic maid Ophelia, Eve seemed to be a synthetic specifically designed for diplomacy and diplomacy only. He couldn't imagine her fighting in the white ball gown she always wore. How could she teach – or program – another synthetic how to fight? Maybe she copied a program from her robot maid or from an alternate database?

While Shepard was musing, he barely noticed Eve move to pat the small girl on the head once more. "I have said it before, have I not? Your quest will be a difficult one. Galactic civilizations do not accept our existence. Sometimes, when negotiations are not possible…" here her smile turned grim "…you will have no choice but to pick up arms and fight – sometimes not just to survive, but to protect others that you care for as well."

Somehow, Eve's words made Shepard wonder if there were really some synthetics that didn't want to kill organics and get terminated regardless because no one bothered to ask them – or there was no way for them to speak. But that was a story for another time, he guessed.

Anchor's gaze, cast to the ground, made Shepard feel like he had to go comfort her, but Eve beat him to the punch. "I have said that people are not simply black and white, that many are gray." Seeing Anchor nod, Eve continued. "That also means that some people prefer to follow the 'might makes right' path when attempting to solve conflicts and problems. It is inevitable, and therefore you must prepare for it."

Shepard wanted to hear more, but he suddenly felt dizzy. The images in front of him became a blur, no matter how much he shook his head or blinked. Soon it became clear that he was losing consciousness, staggering to the side as his words came out in broken sentences. "What's… happening…?"

Gaining the attention of the synthetics, Shepard could barely make out the looks on their faces – worry on Anchor's and eternal calm on Eve's. Eve clasped her hands. "It seems that Shepard's period of dream sleep is ending. Either he is entering a dreamless state, or he is waking up. Which one, I am not certain."

It was hard for Shepard to make out any more of the conversation, struggling to register Eve's final words. "Until we meet again, John Shepard."

And then everything went dark.

* * *

"– up! Commander, wake up!"

Blinking to let his eyes adjust to the light above, Shepard found himself in his personal quarters, everything around him seeming to be normal. So he sat up and called back to the one waiting outside. "All right, all right. I'm coming out. What happened, Alenko?"

The voice from outside the room replied immediately. "Dr. Chakwas sent me to tell you that Dr. T'soni has passed her checkup and is ready for questioning."

Checking his Omni-Tool for the time, Shepard realized he hadn't even gotten six hours of sleep before Kaidan woke him up. Well, that was the military life – SPECTRE or not – even the recommended sleeping habits for a healthy body were impossible to fulfill. A little bit of sleep was better than no sleep, though.

With a resigned sigh, Shepard stood up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "I'll be in the debriefing room in five minutes. Gather the team, Alenko."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Shepard calmly listened to the Asari archaeologist's story, starting from how she ended up on Therum before the Geth and Krogan under Saren showed up to the many minor details of her work. To anyone else, this would have been incredibly boring, but to Shepard it could possibly hold a clue to stop his stupid dream. It was that fact that helped him pay that much more attention to the matter.

Unfortunately, while he came to the right person for the job, the conversation didn't help him get any closer to solving his dream puzzle. It wasn't because she wasn't knowledgeable, but because he kept derailing and postponing any questions in favor of getting to know about her relationship with her mother – who was now a wanted criminal and a literal Evil Matriarch – better to determine if she was trustworthy first. If she wasn't, she would immediately be thrown into the brig before being handed to the C-Sec for further interrogation.

After half an hour of questioning, searching for signs of lying, and grueling questions from the ground team (with the notable exception of Remy, who simply floated silently next to him), Shepard and his team could only draw one conclusion: She has nothing to do with her mother and her actions in recent years. Her being in league with her mother was short of impossible.

Once all suspicion was cleared, Liara suddenly asked to tag along with them, as she wanted to know why her mother aided a criminal like that. Shepard glanced at Gunnery Chief William, knowing that she would probably be uncomfortable with the arrangement, but he knew that he would need Liara's help – especially if he wanted to know what Saren was up to at the moment. Every man on the lookout meant higher chances of finding out his grand plans.

So he made his final decision, but not before speaking what was reasoning to his crew and a warning to Liara. "We are currently in need of people with an expertise in Prothean technology, provided that they don't mind a bit of adventure and all risks involved. This will be dangerous. Are you sure you want to help out?"

He heard Wrex chuckle from a corner of the room, while Alenko, who was seated next to him, shook his head. Shepard paid them no heed, now waiting for the silent Dr. T'soni's final answer. The rest of the team looked on in silence, awaiting an answer.

Once Liara opened her eyes, her voice and expression were free from hesitation. "Please, Mr. Shepard, this line of work required me to be able to fend off slavers and pirates. I can take care of myself."

Shepard nodded in approval. "Welcome aboard then, Dr. T'soni." He shook her hand, before quickly manipulating his Omni-Tool to contact officers and make the necessary arrangements for her.

Once her living accommodations were out of the way, Shepard decided to put her expertise to use immediately. "If you don't mind, I'd like you to explain how to extract information from a Prothean Beacon, especially a damaged one that self-destructed after it was used."

Liara took a breath, rapidly firing questions about the Prothean artifact in question that Shepard could barely answer, let alone keep up with. Once finished, she looked at him curiously. "Whatever this _'Conduit'_ that Saren is looking for, it is something that is connected to the extinction of the Prothean and civilizations and other that came before it."

Somehow, Shepard felt everyone in the room raise an eyebrow at the claim, including his own. "You're implying that the Protheans weren't the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish?"

Liara nodded, excited to share her theory with others who were willing to listen. Considering the fact that she often was dismissed by others because of her age, her excitement wasn't much of a surprise. "Indeed, I've studied this theory for fifty years. Although there are barely any scraps of evidence to shed light on this theory, I have noticed a few patterns. Based on these patterns, I came to that conclusion." She paused, looking at Shepard with curiosity. "From what you've learned from this Beacon and the evidence gathered from the Geth" here she looked at Tali "it seems that this_ 'Reapers'_ theory has some merit."

Seeing that the conversation was getting sidetracked, Shepard coughed and turned the attention back to the problem lingering in his head. "If I can make sense of this vision in my head, we may be able to learn what Saren is after – what's needed for the return of these _'Reapers'_."

Liara contemplated this in silence. "Perhaps… If you allow me to '_Mind Meld_' and look at the vision in your mind, I may be able to help you interpret the meaning." Then she added on hesitantly, "I can't guarantee success, though. The Prothean's Beacons were made to interact with their own species. Thus, if you do not think like a Prothean, there is no way we can make sense of the information. Even the best scientists among the Asari take years to interpret scraps of data they see."

Ashley narrowed her eyes at the blue-skinned alien, but refrained from commenting when Shepard sent her a warning look. Turning back to Liara, he nodded. "It's better than waiting for information to drop into our laps as we do nothing. Go ahead."

Shepard stepped to the center of the room as Liara did the same. Placing her hands on his shoulders, the Asari touched their foreheads before whispering. "Clear your mind… and embrace the eternity…"

For a brief moment there was an abrupt silence, Shepard's vision dark. Then visions assaulted him, brief glimpses of the flashing images showing their contents before flickering away. When he returned to his senses, the young Asari stepped back immediately, a look of mixed sorrow and awe on her face.

The room was silent until the archaeologist chattered excitedly. "Shepard, that vision was… intense. Any lesser mind would've been destroyed by exposure alone, yet you remained sane. That's amazing!"

Shepard blinked, unsure if it was compliment or an insult, but considering past interactions, she was probably just a bit too excited to have a chance to look at another piece of Prothean knowledge.

Her next words and the embarrassment that painted her face was enough to confirm his suspicions. "Sorry, Commander Shepard… I'm getting carried away with the prospect of being able to study a real Prothean vision. It isn't common to find a working Beacon, after all…"

Shepard couldn't help but smile at her. "It's all right; no harm's done. But I'd appreciate it if you could enlighten us to what the Protheans were trying to say to me? Even if it's a little, it might count."

Liara now looked troubled. "I'm sorry, Shepard. I warned you before; deciphering the messages in the Beacons usually take years according to the past experiences of many archaeologists and scientists. Because it was meant for Prothean minds – a form of encryption, so to speak – it can only be deciphered little by little, unless we can find a method to let us think like a Prothean all in one go."

Shepard nodded, but then Liara perked up with interest once more. "Still, from what I saw in your mind and your instinctive resisting to our melding, it seems that you've had some success in comprehending the information in your own way."

He raised his eyebrows, confused until she elaborated. "I saw a conversation between you and a strange, white-haired woman in white and a black-haired girl in red in some sort of chamber. The architecture looked ancient, but not of the Prothean's. I think it's a sign that your mind is trying to comprehend what it saw without changing how your mind thinks."

Shepard realized that she was referring to his weird dreams about the white-haired synthetic, but upon glancing around he knew he would have to explain to the rest of his crew.

Deciding to be frank, he walked back to his seat. "This is going to take a while. Have a seat, Liara." Once the newest addition to the team was seated, Shepard began. "What I am going to say is something so absurd that you may not believe me. But, since the Prothean expert deems it worth investigating, I'll start." Then he muttered – rather loudly, so everyone could hear. "Hopefully this'll get rid of those damn dreams and headache once and for all."

The room, with the exception of Liara, chuckled at the remark, but even then Kaidan sent him a worried glance. Actually, most of them did the same thing, so Shepard changed the topic immediately. "You all know about the _'Prothean vision'_ imprinted in my brain since the attack on Eden Prime. However, recently I've been having these… dreams, dreams that I can interact with during my sleep."

He then relayed everything he could remember, from the woman with the white hair that claimed to be a synthetic, the technical jargon she spewed every time they met, and his latest trip to the dream world and his introduction to the synthetic's red-clad _'daughter.'_

Once he finished, he half expected the room to laugh at his nonsense, but he only received worried looks.

Unsurprisingly, Ashley kept shooting glares at the white drone floating innocently by Shepard. He thought Tali did the same, but it was difficult to tell with her mask and all.

Finally, the Quarian broke the silence. "I'm not sure if you should take the information from your dream seriously, Shepard. I'm no expert, but I'm sure that this _'Remy'_ is something that no one in the known galaxy could create with our known technology. Not to mention that a recent scan placed its age to be over fifty thousand years old. That's before the Prothean civilization even existed."

The news made people tense. Liara straightened, eyes glued to Remy. Remy twitched and hid behind Shepard, as if noticing possible ill-intent. "Really? That drone is a working artifact of an ancient, lost civilization?"

"Positive," Tali replied. "Which begs the question of how it ended up on our ship and how its mysterious owner appeared in Shepard's dream. Is there a connection?"

Wrex shook his head, snorting. "Perhaps Shepard's overthinking things to the point it's affecting his sleeps. It's a more likely explanation."

Garrus nodded in support of the Krogan's comment. "I agree with Wrex. There's a saying about this. If you overthink things, you'll take it to your dreams at night."

Liara seemed disappointed, but agreed with their reasoning nonetheless. "So, now you have one Prothean vision that can't be interpreted in a meaningful way, a strange dream revolving around a humanoid synthetic, and this drone. Fascinating…"

Realizing that they wouldn't get closer to solving the mystery of the _'Remy'_ drone anytime soon, Shepard shifted the conversation once more. "Putting aside the drone and my dreams, we have more pressing matters. I'm more interested in what this Prothean vision means, because from recent events we can also assume that Saren is trying to decipher the same information to further his plan. If we know what we're looking for before Saren we can stop him."

At that Liara shook her head. "Sorry Commander, but I doubt I'll be useful right now."

Shepard groaned inwardly. It seemed that they couldn't do anything until another lead on Saren came up. Speak of the devil, Joker suddenly called out from the intercom. "Commander, there's an urgent message from the System Alliance Command requesting your aid. Data is being sent as we speak."

Tapping his Omni-Tool, Shepard looked at the message from Alliance HQ to figure out what all the fuss was about. Then he turned to his crew. "It seems some matters have come up in Alliance territory that needs our help. Considering that we haven't gotten another lead on Saren yet, we should go. Joker, once the checkup is complete, set course to Sol System, destination Earth's Luna. We've got some house-cleaning to do."

"Aye aye, Commander."

As Joker cut communication, Shepard turned back to the group while smiling grimly as he thought about the dirty business Admiral Hackett had asked them to do.

Standing firm, Shepard crossed his arms. "I'll be honest with you, this is the first time I've heard about this as well. A few days ago, a military training base on Earth's Luna went haywire before the first scheduled training drill of the month could be enacted. At first the VI overseeing the base said it was because of air purification malfunctions, but after a while it stopped responding to questioning. When Alliance sent ships to investigate, the automated defense towers fired on the ships and forced them to back off. Luckily no one died."

"Sounds like a VI gone haywire," Tali remarked.

Shepard nodded. "But that's not the end of it. A few hours later – the day before we flew to Therum, to be specific – the entire facility went dark. There is still a fear that the automated defenses are still working, and there are no available personnel to deal with it around the Sol System at the moment. This our mission: get in and investigate what happened. Any questions?"

The first one to speak, as expected, was Ashley, her face set in a scowl. "Are you sure this is wise, Skipper?"

Shepard motioned towards Liara. "Considering that we're going into combat, I'd like to see how she stacks up in a real situation. And it's better to do that in a place where we have some measure of control than in unknown territory." Here he flashed a strained smile. "Besides, we're still in the dark about Saren at the moment. It's better to solidify our teamwork and cooperation now instead of waiting in a Citadel spaceport for information from STG to show up."

Wrex nodded in agreement, pitching in his own two cents sagely. "Indeed, if we waste away on this spaceship and do nothing our sense will dull. We have to keep in practice if we want to be in top shape should the need arise in the near future."

Who would have the audacity to refute his logic? Definitely not Shepard, and apparently, no one else in his crew. "If there's nothing else to add, this meeting is adjourned."

As everyone went back to their posts, no one noticed the white drone that was trying to make itself as small and undetectable as possible throughout the entire briefing.

* * *

A week later, after Shepard had completed his assignment on Earth's Luna and begun an investigation on the Cerberus secret bases (by request of Admiral Kohoku. Otherwise there was nothing to do but wait for information about Saren and the Evil Matriarch to turn up [4]), a small Garden World that sat on the border between System Alliance territory and the Terminus System was still reeling from a recent attack lead by a rogue agent of the Citadel.

Despite the brutal nature of the attack, the colonists began to rebuild. The scars from the battles around the settlement were mostly gone, but the same couldn't be said for the outskirts of the farmlands and orchards. Those were still littered with vehicle wreckage and destroyed Geth platforms due to a lack of equipment to move the heavy pieces with. At least the bodies – civilian and guard alike – had all been collected and paid respects to.

It is not so surprising; after all, these people still have a lot on their plates already.

This is what Eve thought as she and Oberon, who carried a large, metal box on his back, surveyed the former battlefield, taking in the dozens of disabled Geth platforms piled at her feet. According to the information Remy had sent over, these were called _'Geth Troopers', _strange white fluid leaked from their damaged frames like blood - which seems to be some kind of hydraulic fluid if she's not mistaken.

"I'm sorry that you came during such turbulent times, Miss, but at least all the corpses have been laid to rest. It doesn't nearly look as bad as it did before."

The voice of a human male made Eve and Oberon turn and look at the middle-aged man in the typical formal attire of the people in this era. A sad expression marred what should've been a jolly face, his eyes flickering to the patches of blood that stained the ground of the grassless clearing around them.

If Eve didn't know better, she would've assumed that he was just another family man trying to support his children. However, thanks to medical advancements, he looked that age despite being a grandfather with three granddaughters and the main authority in charge of the small settlement – a Village Chief, so to speak, if said village consisted of thousands of people. While this area was far from the main attack that centered around the Prothean ruin's dig site, it still wasn't left unscathed. [5]

"It is unwise for someone of your status to wander without guard, sir." Oberon was the first to speak, his opaque helmet concealing his face and his voice robotic enough to alarm many people despite the excuses Eve made in regards to her group's nature.

Yet the old man wasn't put off by such a blatantly synthetic voice, regardless of his status as a survivor of a synthetic attack. Instead, he sent the white-clad servant a genuine smile. "Thanks for your concern, Oberon. But after the military sweep and the starships overhead," he looked up at the clear blue sky, at which if one squinted they might see the white-and-blue ships of the System Alliance "there's not much to worry about. Besides, you can't just confine an old man to a room of dull metal and concrete without fresh air, can you?"

Oberon struggled for a reply, continuously glancing at Eve for help. Then again, she wasn't much better, ditching her duties to pursue a personal quest regardless of the kingdom she had re-forged from practically nothing.

Eve nodded towards the elderly man, a hint of affection seeping into her otherwise blank voice. "Indeed, sometimes it is necessary to wind down, else stress will develop and affect ones performance."

The man laughed heartily while Oberon shook his head at Eve, silently whining at her siding with the elder instead of him. Eve knew that he agreed with the old man deep down, though. After all, he had accompanied her, Anchor, and Ophelia to this planet instead of staying behind in the library. Even if he claimed it was his duty, his actions were suspiciously similar to those of the elder man.

Speaking of Ophelia, she shouldn't linger too long least her maid become worried. Kneeling down, she waved to Oberon, signalling for him to remove a boxy, 20th century-esque vacuum cleaner from the boxy bag on his back. Placing it next to the pile of broken Geth, he watched as Eve pressed some buttons on the Omni-Tool around her wrist.

The hum of machinery started up, a ray of light shining from the vacuum to the Geth corpses and causing them to glow. Slowly, the metallic corpses began to 'decompose' under the light and before their eyes.

Eve glanced at the elderly man, his face showing no emotion at the sight of the Geth corpses disintegrating into a brown dust. "That thing is quite handy, being able to convert metal into Omni-Gel and store it in a tank. Even if it looks so… rugged." He sighed. "If only we had enough real tools for the job…"

Eve chuckled inwardly as she proceeded to 'reclaim' the metal mass. In reality, it was her abilities that did all the work; the flashy Omni-Tool and vacuum were simply to disguise her ability. It worked, as everyone thought it was simply a contraption that someone had created by clobbering together some discarded junk or something along those lines.

The sight of Geth corpses turning into brown dust didn't faze the elder 'Village Chief' in any way – fitting, considering that he was in his eighties. With age comes experience, and with experience, not many things surprise.

In a way, the old man reminded her of the Ruben Village Chief – lively, wise, and calm no matter the situation.

However, Eve suspected that the old man already knew that there was more to Oberon, Ophelia, and perhaps her than met the eye, but he didn't raise any alarm, nor complain or question their little group when they first appeared.

As she inspected the ground that was previously piled with metal husks, the Nasod Empress wondered what made the old man decide to let their little group join the colony – the small part of the colony under his jurisdiction, to be specific – despite the fact that they literally showed up out of nowhere in the wake of Saren's attack.

Actually, it was Oberon's suggestion to come here. After a training session with Anchor, he said that they should visit this place so Anchor could put Ophelia's healing lessons into actual practice. True, there was a chance that the colony would be on high alert and they would get caught, but sometimes the most dangerous places are the safest, because no one expects you to be there.

True to Oberon's predictions, the System Alliance fleet monitored all spaceships going in and out of Eden Prime, but thanks to their level of technology, they didn't expect someone to show up on the planet and bypass all of their security measures.

But that didn't explain the old man's action on that day…

* * *

_Eve still recalled that afternoon. She, Oberon, Ophelia, and Anchor had appeared on Eden Prime in the middle of an apple orchard. It was vacant due to the fact that many people were still busy cleaning up after the attack on their home only a few days prior. The small group appeared under a massive tree with branches that blocked out the sky, about a half-hour walk away from the very outskirts of the colony. Part way through their walk to the colony, they came across an old man standing alone in the greenery._

_Noticing the group heading towards him, the mad didn't show any signs of alarm despite the fact that they weren't disguised to look more human – in fact, they hadn't even bothered to change their attire; Eve still wore her Empress dress, Oberon and Ophelia still wore their butler and maid outfits respectively, and Anchor was still in her red dress. His gentle smile didn't fade, even when he was just a few steps away from the admittedly intimidating form of Oberon._

_"I've never seen you around before," the old man began. He studied them carefully, but visibly softened when he saw Anchor clinging to Eve's hand like a child would a mother. Seeing Anchor avert her gaze, he spoke softly. "No need to fear, child. I'm just wondering what your family is doing out here."_

_Despite the fact that most of Anchor's mechanical nature was obvious to see, the old man didn't seem to care. Eve was confident in her ability to read others, human or not, so she decided to reply with a half-truth. "We are not from the main settlement, good sir. Our family lived deep in the wild for a very long time, cut off from the settlement until recently."_

_The old man lifted an eyebrow. "Ah, descendants of the first generation colonists, hmm?"_

_Eve didn't answer, letting the man draw his own conclusions. It seemed to be effective, as he dropped the issue almost immediately. Then he glanced over the mechanical parts on the members of the group before continuing. "The attack on the colony the other day forced you from your home, I'm presuming?"_

_Actually, it was Shepard who stirred Eve's interest in this realm, but considering that Shepard had visited this colony before showing up at her Library the old man's statement was somewhat true. So she nodded in response, prompting a sympathetic look from the man. "I'm sorry for your loss, young miss. I guess you're seeking shelter in the main settlement, then?"_

_Eve nodded again and the old man beckoned for them to follow him to the settlement. That was when she learned that he was in charge of that particular section of the settlement._

_He was quite kind, vouching for them when she made up a story about their mechanical components that passed them off as prosthetics due to past incidents and that Oberon refused to take off his mask due to a severe allergy to a pollen in the air. Combined with her quick wit, the local garrison and guards let them pass without much fuss._

_The man even arranged for Anchor and Ophelia to work as volunteer medical assistants when he learned they studied the healing arts, although it may have been because there wasn't anyone else to do that particular job. She and Oberon worked as salvagers and mechanics – after all, they had to work to earn their food (However unnecessary, Eve still wished to taste this dimension's food) and shelter._

* * *

Eve's musings were cut short when her group was approached by a pair of guards at the entrance to the colony, their faces hidden by the visors of their helmets and their bodies encased in white armor. Yet the protection did little to hide their anxiety as they halted the three of them, quickly beginning the inspection.

One guard spoke up, exasperation lacing his tone. "Sir, I know I've had to say this again, but you shouldn't keep wandering off like that. We're still in a state of emergency, and you're g–"

The man put up his hand to halt the guard – similar to how he had done so the first day they came there – and thoroughly rebutted the arguments of his subordinate. The guard sighed, shifting his attention to Eve and Oberon.

"I take it you two salvaged some raw material from those piles of Geth already?"

Eve nodded, gesturing to the pack on Oberon's back. The guard's eyes followed her hand, lingering on the bag for a moment. "I see… Thank you for your help. Don't forget to put it in the warehouse before you turn in for the day…" He sighed "…though it'd be better if we had more salvaging tools to spare instead of relying on this vacuum thing." He nodded once more at Oberon.

"It'll still be a while before things settle down, Gerald." The man chimed in, his face marred with more wrinkles from his frown. "With a shortage of tools and personnel like this, I'd say we're lucky that these children decided to return from their home in the wild to help us out… You haven't forgotten that they've healed your wife's broken leg, now have you?"

The guard shook his head, leading the group into the settlement. Oberon and Eve exchanged looks, each letting out a sigh for different reasons.

Once they turned in the box containing Omni-Gel into the warehouse, Gerald returned to his post while Eve, Oberon, and the elder walked down the street towards one of the temporary shelters that were set up against the concrete wall of a skyscraper. It was here that the old man said his farewell, turning to return to his office within the looming walls next to their temporary home.

As she watched his retreating form, Eve decided to act on impulse for once in her life. "Mister Hagus, a moment if you please. I must ask you something."

Heck, even his name was the same as the elder of Ruben Village. Normally she tried to avoid calling his name whenever possible, as it reminded her too much of a better time that would never return, especially considering that her Hagus was already buried six feet under the earth…

'Hagus' turned on his heel, smiling gentle. "What do you wish to ask, young lady?"

Eve glanced around briefly to ensure they were alone – old habits die hard – before speaking. "Although I am grateful for your generosity, I cannot help but wonder why you have taken us, wanderers who are not in possession of an identity card, in without a second thought. Especially since there was just an attack on your home."

Eve knew she was being ironic; after all, she had helped Anchor without thinking of possible gain. It was possible that the old man had similar thoughts as her.

'Hagus' stroked his chin in thought. "Why shouldn't I?"

Eve blinked. Although she had sort of expected it, she hadn't thought his reasoning would be so simple.

The 'Village Chief' seemed to notice her confusion. "I'm already eighty, young lady. Before I settled down here on Eden Prime, I was a space traveler, going from colony to colony in the days before the First Contact War… good times, those were…"

His eyes turned to the sky, as if remembering the glory of days past. "I met all sorts of people you know, from beggars to millionaires. With that experience, I'm quite a good judge of character."

Eve nodded slightly, urging the elder to continue. "I know that your little group hasn't told me everything, whether then or now… but I saw it in your eyes, young lady. You're no stranger to violence, yet you'd rather avoid it if given a chance. You're also quite a bit smarter than you let on, no?"

At this, Eve couldn't help but be impressed. Eve with her near-expressionless mask, this man was still able to piece together all this… Still, she was quite certain that because of this, 'Hagus' was a bit paranoid about her. "Your assumptions are quite accurate, Mister Hagus… however I am not sure that is your only reason for trusting us." Her eyes narrowed as she said this, her stance shifting subtly.

'Hagus' nodded, his smile fading as he looked away from Eve's piercing gaze with a tired sigh. "I'd rather have everyone who means no harm group together instead of live spread out, facing danger alone without anyone to help or remember them."

Feeling the sorrow in his voice, Eve hastily apologized. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to…"

The elder's face softened, but was cut off when the sound of tapping, metallic footsteps sounded around the corner. Turning to face the sound, Anchor – still in her red dress – leaped out, arms outstretched like the wings of a bird and a happy smile on her face. Behind her was Eve's handmaiden, Ophelia, her stern gave disapproving as she walked rapidly to catch up with the little synthetic.

"Mother!" Anchor cheered happily, jumping into Eve's waiting arms.

Eve smiled at the 'child', ruffling her hair affectionately before turning to Ophelia. "Is everything alright, Ophelia?"

The stern expression on the maid's face softened slightly – the key word here being 'slightly' – as she proceeded to both give her report and scold the little girl. "Anchor is a fast learner, Milady. However, quite a bit of convincing was required before relatives allowed her to treat the children. To be frank, Anchor's enthusiasm most likely put them off even more."

"They see her as an excitable child, then?" Eve asked, setting Anchor down.

Ophelia nodded while replied "Yes, I think we need to teach her to curb that behavior a bit if she's to be taken seriously."

"I will keep that in mind," Eve concurred, her retainer glancing at a sulking Anchor – no doubt she was listening in to their conversation.

It was then that Ophelia registered Hagus's presence, sweeping him a half-bow. "Ah, Mister Hagus. I am truly sorry for interrupting your conversation with Milady."

Hagus laughed before moving towards Anchor, who bowed politely to him as well. "Not a problem, my dear," he then ruffled Anchor's hair just like Eve did prior. "Actually, this is the answer to your question, young lady."

Both Anchor and Ophelia blinked in confusion, matching puzzled looks on their faces. Hagus, removing his hands from Anchor's hair, turned to walk away. "I'd hate for a young girl like her to have to live without a friend her age. How could you let a gentle soul like her live like that, anyway?"

Eve's golden eyes widened slightly, before she chuckled. "Indeed, how could I?"

The elder man laughed, waving and resuming to the group, calling out one last time. "Don't forget to check on the children in block C-18; their fevers won't go away in a couple of days to my knowledge. And to think, those doctors deem Prothean archaeologist and guards to be more important than our future!"

Anchor waved back, despite the fact that the old man's back was turned to her. "Anchor won't let you down, Mister Hagus!"

Eve smiled, thinking back to Glave's words. Perhaps forging new bonds and interacting with others won't be so bad after all…

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**[1] I see no reason why they should hold out some members on the ship and use 3 men squad for the mission, since Normandy is in orbit; excuse of having to guard the ship is moot, until we get to certain missions that is.**

**[2] In the Codex it's stated that 'Tech' ability is actually a specialized grenades fired from micro launcher, but in-game it behave like instant magic somehow, don't ask me why.**

**[3] Just try to be a little realistic here, trapped without food and water for days have to have effects, and even if you do this mission first, it still has to be a few days before Shepard show up when you factored in the Prototype status of his Frigate on first shakedown run; it need inspection no matter if you're in space age or not.**

**[4] The timeframe may looks long compared to when you play the game, heck, there're a lot of Mass Effect 1 speedrun video on Youtube that ended in a couple of hour! And even you're not speedrunning you can complete the whole game in a week worth of playtime on average. But this's a fiction, not a game where you can complete the whole thing without your character ever goes to sleep, eat, chat, take care of his/her personal need, etc. So bear with me when I make even a single assignment (side quest) take days to complete on minimum during the course of story okay?**

**[5] Look at the Codex; it stated that Eden Prime has like 3.8 million population at the beginning of Mass Effect 1, but in-game the whole level is unrealistically small for place that supposed to have 3.8 Million people in, so I took the liberty to make the colony a multiple sectors and the place where the whole level in-game is in is one separate sector from where Eve's group are in. Hope I'm not breaking any suspension of disbelief here.**

* * *

**As the second reviewer has guessed correctly; yes, Anchor is actually Prototype of EDI - specifically 'Hannibal', but don't expect her to have the same personality as EDI though, as Chapter 3 and this one could attest.**

**And EDI may still show up, as from what we learned from the canon so far; Cerberus use Lunar VI's 'Blueprint' as basis to build EDI. They did not stealing the Blue Box on Lunar and rebuild it as EDI.**

**Those who purchased certain DLC of Mass Effect 3 will know there's something else on this colony apart from the Beacon that gets wrecked. But whether Eve team will find that 'something else' or not remain to be seen.**

* * *

**Rate and Reviews are welcome, like I said that I never use OC with such major role in fan fiction before, so this experience is new to me. Not mention that this story start out as crazy idea as stated in beginning chapter. So any comments and reviews that's reasonable enough will be useful.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Finally The Great Rosamanelle returned! Praise for him everyone, for now this chapter no longer suffers from bad grammar - or at least - suffer from it less...**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Rabbit Hole**

"Thank you, Big Sis Anchor! I feel like I can run laps around the settlement now!"

Anchor, come play with us!"

"Eh… eh?! But, I–"

"Aw, c'mon! You never play with us at all!"

Eve chuckled at the sight of a dozen children gathered around a bed inside Block C-18's hospital wing to swap their new friend – Anchor, to be specific. The black haired girl looked at Eve uncomfortably, as if pleading with her 'mother' to save her from being suffocated (not that she could, considering her hybrid Nasod nature). Ophelia simply watched her charge from the corner of the room, but Eve was sure her retainer would intervene if things got out of hand.

It was just two days after her chat with Hagus, as well as two days after her last salvage trip to the field due to the fact that the warehouse had reached its limit. That, and because there were some conflicts when ordering materials to rebuild the settlement, plus the sudden shift in manpower from salvaging and cleanup towards the preparation for an official visit from some System Alliance big wig. Hagus called it a political mess.

Since Eve was once in a similar position before – when the entire fate of Elrios hung in balance, no less – Eve could sympathize with the old man who just wanted the best for those under his care.

Still, the end result was that she and Oberon had nothing to do. Hagus had suggested that they look after the neighbourhood children – which they had been doing for the past two days. In the Empress's opinion, it was quite relaxing.

Perhaps the old man had set this up, but who was she to complain?

Eve kept watching as a group of children detached from Anchor, courtesy of her handmaiden. The maid's unwavering gaze was more than enough to deter the children, their little hands losing their grip on the fabric of Anchor's dress. It seems that curing fevers and mending bones left quite an impression on the little ones, especially when their healer looked like a child.

It wasn't a surprise to see that the children saw Anchor and Ophelia as their saviors. After all, most of the doctors in the colony were shifted to take care of those injured in combat against the Geth. With many still in critical condition, the government believed that it did the right thing. But from the perspective of the children, they had been temporarily abandoned. So when Anchor and Ophelia came to help them, they were received warmly.

The same couldn't be said for their parents, however. It's not surprising, considering the out of date clothing and the fact that one appeared to be a preadolescent child. In the end they gave in, but only because there were no other doctors available. Once the duo proved themselves to be capable of handling their job, they finally dropped the subject.

Eve's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the children that had lined up next to her while she wasn't paying attention. She blinked in confusion. "What is it?"

Simultaneously, the children turned their large, puppy-dog eyes on her. "Can we please go outside to play?"

Eve glanced at Ophelia and Anchor, who were in the midst of the children, then back at Oberon. He simply shrugged, letting her decide. But before she could make her choice, a little boy excitedly shot up from his seat, looking at Oberon in delight. "Anchor told us that she's practicing sword dancing with you. We want to see it, too!"

Eve shifted her gaze to Anchor, who silently mouthed her reply from behind the children in a sheepish manner, rubbing the back of her head. _I got carried away while trying to calm them down during treatment. Sorry._

Eve shook her head, smiling gently at the children who looked at her as if she was going to bite their heads off for suggesting such a thing. "Relax, you are not in trouble." Inclining her head, Eve's tone remained even. "Actually, I must thank you for reminding me that Anchor has been neglecting her practice as of late – which is neither her nor your fault, but as things have settled down fairly well, it is about time that she returned to her studies."

Eve nodded at Anchor, the petite girl nervously nodding back. "So, should you not ask the staff and your parents first before you watch?"

Needless to say, the sound of children booing in disapproval at her suggestion was more than enough to make the neighbors panic, especially the other volunteers in the hospital.

* * *

Half an hour later, after getting permission from the staff and guards, Eve and a dozen children plus several parents moved to an apple orchard just outside of the colony gate, still within the guard's line of sight. Some of the children ran around, excited to be free from the concrete confines of their settlement. Several parents and volunteers watched them carefully, making sure that they didn't run off and get lost.

The rest of the group scattered, most of the families – Eve and Ophelia included – choosing to sit under one of the many apple trees to watch the 'performance' in the middle of the clearing.

There stood a tall man dressed a white butler's uniform, an opaque mask covering his face. He held a pair of wooden tonfa expertly, standing opposite of a small girl in a red-and-white dress and spangled headband. Her weapon of choice was a wooden longsword, one that was almost as long as she was tall. This was to be a sparring match, something that the people of this space-age no longer practiced thanks to the technological progression that rendered such things obsolete. The only thing reminiscent of such a scene would be found in retro movies, all a far cry from the real thing.

Through the untrained eye, the intricate dances of parries, stabs, slashes, blocks, and dodges seem slow and unwieldy, and, if using cultural standards of this day, boring when compared to the dancers in modern recreational centers. But through the eyes of an experienced soldier, these were movements meant to kill and tear your enemy apart.

Of course, the majority of onlookers weren't soldiers, let alone having any experiences with such a weapon in this gun-dominated era. Soon enough, many lost interest, many of the children yawning and falling asleep under their respective trees, the others remaining respectfully appreciative of the 'lost art' being shown to them.

Eve and Ophelia are the only ones who didn't lose any interest; instead, both watched and analyzed each movement carefully. Most of their attention was focused on the newly born synthetic.

In the battle-hardened eyes of the Empress, she could tell that her first loyal retainer's combat skills were still in top shape, even after their millennia of isolation, so there wasn't much for her to comment on their. If anything, she was impressed that he managed to keep up with his training for so long.

Anchor, on the other hand, despite having practiced under tutelage for quite a long time while they wre in the Chronos Library, the newly born synthetic still had a difficult time. It wasn't that she was clumsy or lacked in effort, but that she had to restrict some of her more… exotic abilities during the 'show' lest they draw unwanted attention. Said abilities happened to be the ones that made her move usable in the first place, so Eve wouldn't complain too much. In fact, this was a good learning experience for her, as Anchor was too reliant on her abilities and needed to develop a way to fight without them.

Another thing that bugged her was Anchor's lack of real battle experience, something that sparring and training would never be able to prepare her for. It was the same reason why she didn't pre-program fighting techniques into Anchor; learning how to fight yourself was definitely more effective than something that was made for only specific situation.

Letting out a soft sigh, Eve dispelled the thought immediately. She wasn't one to want things like battle to befall on those she cares for, especially her children, whether new or old.

Soon, the sword dance came to a close, the two 'performers' bowing politely at the round of applause. As Oberon and Anchor walked towards Eve to sit, the rest of the colonists began their own activities with their friends and family. Hagus approached them, his smile never fading as he greeted the other families along the way.

The simple act confirmed that the man really cared for the colony. No one would have greeted him with such familiarity if he didn't.

"Mr. Hagus, what brings you out here at such a crucial time?" Eve stood up to greet the man as he drew closer, her lips curving slightly but doing nothing to hide the sarcasm dripping from her words.

But, only Hagus or another official of Eden Prime would've been able to catch such a remark, as only they knew the motives of the politicians visiting the colony and how much of a headache it caused, diverting resources to such a stupid event and all.

After all, if something were to happen to those big wigs, the one who'd take blame would be them and the future of a colony cast into space without System Alliance was a bleak one. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The old man's face, barely looking a day over fifty, chuckled. "Not much is crucial, Miss. Everything is fine, and so I decided to take a break."

He leaned against an apple tree, watching as Anchor was dragged out by children begging to learn some basic sword stances and movements before continuing. "Even when I was a young spacer, real swordsmanship was already a relic from the past. No one really knows how a swordsman fights anymore."

Eve arched an eyebrow, recalling the TV that Anchor was watching intently last night. "Weren't there any movies depicting sword fighting?"

Hagus motioned his head towards the children, all of who were trying to mimic Anchor with apple branch swords. "They're all too flashy and impractical to use in real life, let alone fight with."

As if on cue, several children began to whine about the very basic stances they were learning, just loud enough for Eve to hear. "Anchor, why can't we try with the sword? Are you jealous that we might be better than you?"

"Eh… But it's dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt, Draco…"

The blond boy, who looked to be around ten, turned red before angrily picking up the wooden sword from off of the ground, swinging it around wildly and causing the others to scatter quickly. He laughed loudly, boasting proudly. "See? What's so hard about this? If you move so slowly it's boring!"

Anchor opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when Oberon placed a placating hand on her shoulder. The butler shook his head several times, the two backing away from the excited boy to regroup with the others.

Meanwhile, Draco kept swinging the sword around in an attempt to copy the movements he saw on TV to impress the audience, oblivious to his parent's panicked yelling, begging for him to stop before he hurt himself but unable to get closer or risk injury.

And then the inevitable happened.

As the blond boy performed a rather sloppy jump spin, his arms spread wide like propeller blades, the wooden sword hit a branch above him with a loud crack. Draco yelped in pain as the wooden sworn was torn out of his grasp, slipping away as his body spun out of control. Attempting to cover his injured fingers, he landed hard on his back, just in time to see a large branch break off and begin to fall.

The boy's eyes widened as those around him begin to scream, some rushing to try and save him. Alas, they were too far away to save him from the falling branch, all except two.

Just before the apple tree branch came crashing down on him, a small red blur rushed out and snatched the boy from the ground and rolled away to safety. Meanwhile, Oberon stoically stepped forward, stoically smashing away the branch, causing it to crash away from the others harmlessly.

Once out of harm's way, Anchor carefully rolled the boy over and checked for injuries. To her relief, there weren't any very serious injuries. His parents rushed over, immediately settling down next to him, Anchor glancing at them before speaking seriously. "He has two broken fingers, one scrape, and a couple bruises on his arms, nothing too serious. I'll begin treatment immediately."

The petite synthetic quickly brought up her right arm, aiming it towards the small wounds that covered Draco's arm. The crystal on her palm glowed a soft red light, barely visible, pollen-like particles appearing out of nothingness and flowing down towards the wound. They washed away the dirt and semi-dried blood, each wound closing quickly as skin regrew at an alarming rate until there were no signs of injury left.

Once the superficial wounds were taken care of, Anchor closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on Draco's broken fingers, her gauntlet-clad hand curling around it protectively. The soft red glow was emitted once more, signifying that her miracle of healing was at work once more.

Eve smiled at the sight of the awestruck parents as Anchor removed her hand, revealing Draco's now-healed fingers, which he flexed without any pain. Although most of her capabilities had to be restricted, this particular ability of Anchor and, by extension, Eve, could be used in plain sight, thanks to the invention of Medi-Gel. The healing material neatly masked the true nature of their Nano-crafters, which created new flesh, tissue, and healing salves on the spot.

Eve still remembered the first time she tried to improvise something to heal organic objects from something designed for inorganic objects. She was desperate to save a friend from a mortal wound, and because of her creativity and desperation she was able to discover her true potential. Nothing was set in stone; with creativity and imagination, anything can be done.

It was one of the reasons why she believed that she'd find a way to free her friends one day.

Eve pulled her mind out of her ramblings, noticing that Draco's parents were scolding both their son and Anchor, the former for being reckless and the latter for not trying to stop him, despite her clear initial effort.

The Empress stood up and began to walk towards them, but Oberon beat her to the punch and spoke for Anchor, glancing briefly at her deer-in-headlights look.

"Ma'am, I believe that everyone here is aware of the fact that Anchor tried to warn him." He waved at the crowd, all of who nodded in agreement despite the couple's obvious bias towards their son. "And if that is not enough, it was clear from our practice that Anchor still has much to learn."

"Then why didn't _you_ come to save our son?!"

The clear accusation and hatred from the worried parents was now directed to the stoic Oberon, but he wasn't fazed in the slightest. "Even I couldn't stop him without injury, ma'am. The way he was swinging the sword around was already off-balance and completely unsafe. If one had intervened, a broken back would be a likely possibility."

The tension was still high between the trio, only breaking when Hagus approached them. "Reality is much different from fiction, Madam Malfoy [1]. Wielding a sword takes more skill and practice than using a gun, which is why guns are so widespread in every galactic civilization while the sword is now obsolete."

"How does that have anything to do with this?!"

Now it was Oberon's turn to speak, his voice eternally calm. "Since we have only re-discovered this swordsmanship style recently," which really meant when they appeared on Eden Prime "the incident with Draco was outside our preventative capabilities."

Still fuming, the Malfoys stomped back towards the colony, grudgingly nodding at Anchor in thanks as they passed.

Once the incident was somewhat resolved and the parties scattered, Oberon, Anchor, and Hagus joined Eve and Ophelia under the shade of the apple tree, her loyal retainer pulling out a tea set from a picnic basket to pour for everyone.

As soon as everyone had their own cup full of warm tea, Hagus calmly opened a conversation. "That arm of yours is very convenient, Anchor."

Bright red eyes met his, the synthetic replying rather shyly. "It is what Mother Eve gifted to Anchor, but Anchor is still learning how to use it better."

"Indeed?" The old man raised an eyebrow. "Even Medi-Gel cannot mend broken bones, it only eases pain and closes wounds, according to the last Medi-Gel manual I read. Your version of that stuff is quite advance. [2]"

Tensing slightly, Eve put her political skills to use and came up with an explanation. "As I said before, we used to live away from modern society. We had to salvage to create Anchor's prosthetic limb. I am not quite sure what sort of technology found for her arm, but whatever it was, it is capable of incredible healing powers.

Hagus nodded, seemingly accepting her story with no questions, just like the first time he had questioned the metallic parts on their bodies. But this time around he didn't have much time to dwell on his thoughts as an armed guard rushed towards them. Panting harshly, the guard started speaking rapidly as soon as he reached the chief.

"Sir, **Dr. Manuel [3] **has disappeared from his ward in Sector 30!"

Eve blinked, searching her memory banks for a Manual. Her search was cut short when Hagus responded, unintentionally answering her question. "One of those scientists that took away most of the doctors in my sector to take care of, even if it meant leaving behind sick children to die? They let him disappear?"

The tone the elder used betrayed nothing but his dissatisfaction with the management of Eden Prime. Although the guard was only doing his duty, he still took a step back at Hagus' wrath.

The glare Hagus sent at the guard lasted for another minute before he sighed, anger withering away. "Anyway, what does this have to do with my area of jurisdiction? If I recall correctly, the hospital you kept all those eggheads was at least five miles away. He couldn't have possibly walked out here, now could he?"

The guard gulped before activating his Omni-Tool, showing a holographic video of a certain Dr. Manuel running past a district close to the sector Hagus watched over.

Hagus sighed, putting his head in his hands and muttering. "What a headache… Those damn brasses…"

Then he pulled his Omni-Tool out, calling the local security and telling them to look for the man in question before turning back to Eve and her 'family'. "Sorry, it seems that those on the ivory tower have dumped their work on poor old me again." He put the teacup down on a plate that Ophelia handed over dutifully. "Anyway, you should get back to the colony. The man in question, Dr. Manuel, has a few screws loose and is potentially dangerous. Especially when he has a gun from a careless guard…"

Eve's 'family' looked at each other before Anchor glanced worriedly around the orchard, specifically in the direction of the other families. Hagus, who saw her concerned gaze, spoke up kindly. "I'll dispatch some guards to round up anyone lingering around and bring them back to the colony in case they don't respond to our call. You four should head back…"

"Er… Can we help?" Anchor asked, but quickly averted her eyes when the old man turned towards her, Oberon placing his hand on her should and shaking his head.

"You've already helped enough," Hagus replied with a smile, patting Anchor on the head and nearly smacking her silver headband. "I suggest that you go back and leave the rest to us. After all, if you have to help us detain that man, why do we even have guards?" At this he chuckled.

But before they could do as the old man asked, a scream came from the depths of the orchard, followed by a gunshot and panicked screaming that sent everyone into a tizzy. Even Eve, the most composed of the group, wasted no time in rushing towards the source of the sound along with her servants and Anchor, leaving the stunned chief and guards in dust.

It took almost ten minutes for the four of them to reach the edge of the orchard, as marked by a waist-height metal fence; on the other side was a forest so dense that it was impossible to see past fifty meters. Beside the fence was a pool of blood, the source being a wound on a man's left thigh. He was leaning against the fence in shock, a woman frantically shouting next to him for help, too panicked to attend to his wound.

Eve rushed to the man's side, beckoning for Anchor to take a look at the wound before speaking rapidly. "What happened?"

The man's anguished expression and constant moans prevented him from replying, but the pain reduced as Anchor healed him. Still bleary-eyed, he spoke softly. "A man… A man showed up and started babbling about the end of the world, demanding that we went with him. When we refused, he pulled out a gun and started shooting, before he took our –"

His eyes widened as he tried to stand up, but a cry of pain left his lips instead, forcing him to sit back down. The woman picked up where he left off, albeit with a lot more sobbing involved. "That mad man took our son Brian and ran into the forest…" She pointed in the direction of the forest, a clear trail of footsteps showing just where their attacker went.

If Eve recalled correctly, this couple only had a five-year-old son.

Quickly making a decision, Eve stood up as Hagus and a dozen guards finally joined them. "It seems that this Manuel you spoke of has taken a child hostage and fled into the woods. We must find them quickly."

Hagus nodded grimly, beckoning for two of the guards to help the distraught parents back to the colony for further treatment, quietly assuring them that he'd send a pursuit team to get their son back as soon as possible.

Once he finished, he turned to Eve, but she cut him off before he could speak. "I think we'll be involved in this one. Remember that we used to live in the wild. We know more about tracking in the uncivilized parts of the world than you are."

Of course, by 'uncivilized parts of the world' Eve meant Elrios, but they didn't need to know that.

Hagus stared at her disapprovingly. "He couldn't have gotten that far away from the colony. We could chase him down with our air car."

As if mocking his statement, the sound of an engine came ripping from the depths of the forest, but it was unlike any air car Eve had heard. It was more like…

"A motorbike…" Hagus whispered, his pale face speaking volumes of the situation. Quickly establishing communication with the ones responsible for Manuel's escape, he growled into his Omni-Tool. "Why didn't you tell me that he stole a bike too? This 'little patient' of yours just – what?!" His growl quickly turned into a shout of disbelief, followed by a curse. "Those idiots!" Click. Communications were shut down.

"Another problem, sir?" One of the guards approached his boss nervously.

"Yes…" Hagus sighed before turning towards Eve and her group. "It seems that a deep-forest tracker is now required.

The guard took one look at Eve and her group before protesting. "Can't we just ask our ship to scan for the mad scientist, sir? I don't want to endanger the colonists, former forest folk or not."

Hagus replied almost immediately. "Those guys won't waste precious resources on something like this when there are pirates waiting to seize any opportunity out there." Pausing, he added on almost thoughtfully. "This kind of archaic contraption won't register on the scanner either, especially in a forest this dense. It's too small and doesn't use Mass Effect technology; it can go into compact areas that no air car can follow. We've got to track him down the hard way."

Then he turned to Eve, an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, but it seems we really need your help for this."

Eve complied without a second thought. And thus the search party was formed.

* * *

Two hours later, deep into the unexplored forest of Eden Prime, a search team comprised of Eve, Oberon, Ophelia, Anchor, and six had-picked colonial guards trudged through the dense foliage. The butler lead the way beside his mistress, Ophelia and Anchor taking the rear to watch for danger in the form of wildlife or any other natural hazard.

It was ironic in a way; despite the colony being nearly thirty years old, they still couldn't completely map out their surroundings, let alone a single continent they resided on. Then again, they had no need to expand their reach when there were more important matters, like day-to-day survival.

Eve's musings were cut short when their group reached a clearing, finding one of the items they'd been tracking for the last few hours. However, its appearance wasn't a reason to celebrate; instead it only complicated things.

The motorbike was sprawled across the wet ground, missing a passenger and driver. A wide stream sat next to it, the tire tracks veering sharply alongside it before stopping abruptly leaving nothing to the imagination.

"Damn it…" A guard, who had moved next to Eve, cursed. His visor obscured his expression, but it was easy enough to tell what he was feeling. "So now we have to swim downstream too?"

"We will have to walk downstream," Eve instructed, glancing at the captain of the squad as he examined the bike with his Omni-Tool. "I presume that this search will take longer than expected. If you feel the need to call for backup, please do."

"Nah, the brass won't send us anything until we get that scientist back," quipped the captain – the same Gerald she met the day before – as he shook his head. "Our orders are clear: _'Don't call for a pickup until you've captured Manuel.'_ There's no mention about the kidnapped child whatsoever."

"I'd say that the brass sees a child in danger as less important than another Prothean nut," another guard added, inspecting the scene carefully. "But at least this Manuel character hasn't dumped or killed the kid, from what I see here."

"Then get moving, men!" Gerald shouted. "There's no telling when that will change, and we have to stop him before that happens! Miss Eve, please lead the way."

And so, they slowly walked downstream, eyes peeled on the lookout for signs Manuel and his child hostage. With every moment that passed, Eve began to get antsier. Glancing at Anchor, she could instantly tell that she wasn't the only one frustrated with their predicament.

It was so simple. Without the colonial guards tagging along for _'safety reasons'_, she, her servants, and her daughter could easily be able to dart through the forest while simultaneously tracking down the insane man in no time. Although she, Oberon, and Ophelia would be conducting the search while Anchor followed along, the chase would still have been over much earlier.

Furthermore, if the insane scientist needed to be subdued by force or some unforeseen event occurred – something Eve couldn't dismiss considered the recent events that had transpired – her group couldn't utilize their full potential without having the guards questioning their beings more than they already did during their stay in the colony.

Still, as they spotted a trail on the other side of the stream, the guard captain ordering his men to find a way to cross, Eve called for her three 'children' to have a brief conversation.

The Empress spared but a glance to the guards who were busy improvising a bridge before turning towards Anchor in particular. "I know that you want to save your friend as fast as you can, but you know that we can't save anyone if our secret has been exposed."

Anchor looked at her with a worried glance. "Anchor knows, Mother. But…"

Eve sighed, cutting her off gently. "I am not saying that we have to let people die to keep our secret, Anchor." To this she smiled sadly. "Should we find them and see the child is in danger, then we will use everything in our possession to save him. After all, we have our promise with his parents to keep. We can deal with the fallout later."

Anchor nodded with a determined look in her eyes, her hand clenching into a fist. "Anchor understands; thank you Mother."

Of course, Eve didn't mention that saving the boy would put them in good grace and make it much easier to explain their true nature, should it come to such ends.

Oberon then spoke up. "They've finished building the bridge. We should get going, milady."

And so the chase resumed with renewed determination. With Eve wanting to let her learn about tracking, Eve let Anchor take the front alongside Oberon, positioning herself in the rear with Ophelia and the colonial guards. The maid didn't complain though, seeing that she was still able to see Anchor from her position. As long as the planet's wildlife couldn't shrug off dozens of anti-ship missiles exploding in the face – like the native flora and fauna of Elrios – then Ophelia would be more than enough to handle any potential threats.

The foliage and trees thickened more and more the deeper in they went, to the point where the sky was blocked out. The land had been covered a few meters away from the stream, but Eve and Oberon were still able to spot the trail that Manuel left behind, if not by the footprints then by the broken branches and bushes. As they walked, Eve taught Anchor how to differentiate a human-made trail from one made by the wildlife, to which Captain Gerald also listened in on, no doubt filing it away for future use.

"You seem awfully good at this, Miss…" Gerald spoke up once they moved past a field of rocks, keeping an eye out for danger with a hand on his gun. "From your clothing, I wouldn't have pegged you to be for this kind of work at all."

"Like I have said before, living in the wild means that you live with what you have or what your parents have left for you," Eve explained fluently, leaving nothing for him to doubt. "Unless you think there is a clothing shop open for us to purchase clothing from. Then again, we have no credits to afford such luxury."

"Of course not," Gerald replied quickly "It just looks… odd, nothing more."

Suddenly, Oberon held out his hand, their chatter dying down instantly. Eve peered at what her retainer was looking at, quickly finding an answer.

In the clearing ahead was a small cave opening, something easy to miss from above due to the mounds of rock, dirt, and foliage covering the entrance. But what held their attention was what was within the cave. There sat a metallic blast door, clearly not something formed by nature, but made by an advanced civilization – one that had aesthetics very similar to the Prothean beacon found on the other side of the colony!

"Well, it seems that state-of-the-art satellite scans still can't beat good old exploration on foot," one of the guards commented, stirring up a wave of nervous laughter. Ignoring them, Eve pointed to the ground.

"These are human footprints. Manuel went into the bunker."

Everyone tensed as Gerald decided to call for support despite being told not to do so earlier. When Eve questioned him, he laughed.

"As if they'd ignore a newly discovered Prothean ruin. I wouldn't be surprised if they sent half of the marine down to secure it right now."

Still, the problem remained. Brian was still Manuel's hostage and no one wanted to wait for reinforcements, which were at least half an hour away if sent by dropship or hour away if sent by foot. By that time, the man may have already killed the boy, so Gerald decided to have half of his men guard the entrance while the rest went with Eve's group to find the two within the ruins.

One of the guards quickly stood next to the gate while sneaking a peek into the hall carefully, everyone else taking refuge beside the opened gate. A moment later, he signaled that the coast was clear and the group cautiously moved inside.

The atmosphere was tense as they stalked the hallways of the ancient ruins, devoid of both life and light. Now they only had the built-in flashlights on the guard's helmets to keep away the darkness and let them see.

"This is spooky," commented one guard in a hushed tone.

"Quite you," Gerald scolded. "We don't know if the mad scientist will spook from hearing your voice and kill the kid, so keep quiet." Then he turned to a nearby guard, speaking quietly. "Soap, can your scanner see any life signs yet?"

"Negative." The guard named Soap replied. "Something inside this ruin is interfering with our sensors and communication abilities. All the readings are messed up, sir."

"Great…" The guard captain grumbled, looking at Eve. "We have to do it the hard way again. Sorry for the mess, Miss…"

Eve shook her head. "I already told you that we are glad to help. We should move; I hear some sort of mechanism moving. It seems that Manuel has activated something."

As she spoke, the lights that lined the wall lit up, illuminating the corridor they were currently in and beyond, highlighting the details of the wreckage before them.

Gerald grunted. "Well, it's less spooky now, but our time has been cut in half. God knows what Prothean defenses Manuel may have triggered!"

Without needing more orders, they walked down the hallways as quickly as possible, but the prospect of running into a trap kept them cautious with their speed. This enforced caution irritated everyone to no end, as they were racing against the clock already as it was!

Finally, after climbing a long staircase littered with rocks that lead to an underground level, the group found themselves in front of another pair of massive metallic gates, easily as tall as a three or four story building. A small gap in the layer of dust between the two slabs of metal – no bigger than a man's hand – showed that someone passed through the gates recently, namely the very person they were looking for.

It seemed that Manuel realized that he was being followed, or perhaps paranoid, as he tried to seal the gates. Luckily for them, the mechanism malfunctioned, failing to completely close.

And as fate would have it, and eerily child-like cry echoed from the depths of the underground tomb – or whatever this place was.

Gerald quickly issued orders to his men, not that it was necessary, as many had already scattered to look around the hall upon hearing the cry. "Find a control panel to open this thing! Quickly!"

Soon, they found a small stand with a glass-like monitor on one wall, a guard quickly using his Omni-Tool to interface with the control panel. However, all he got was a series of holographic, static-filled displays, similar to the early television when face with bad signal.

"I can't decipher it, sir!" The panicked guard yelled.

The captain's irritated voice immediately rebuffed the guard, clearly wanting nothing to do with the blasted gates. "Then how in the blazes did Manuel get through them at all?! There has to be a way. Keep trying!"

The cries of the abducted boy only got louder, serving to make everyone else even more restless. Some tried to pry open the gate, while others looked for weak spots in the wall that they could possibly break through. One of them was even using their Omni-Tool to try and blowtorch their way through the wall, but the stubborn metal refused to even heat up.

'_At this rate, they won't make it in time…' _Eve thought, shooting a meaningful glance at her retainers. The two of them nodded silently allowing her to go ahead, before returning to the task of looking around for possible ways forward.

The Empress touched Anchor's shoulder, the little girl turning around to look at her mother. Eve held an index finger over her mouth, signalling for her to be quiet, before speaking. "We'll get past this barrier and locate them."

"How?"

Eve simply winked, mouthing something that made the girl nod and glance nervously at the humans in the area, knowing that their secrets would essentially be out as soon as they had chosen this course of action.

But it remains to be seen if the humans would catch on to what they were about to do and link it to their true nature. Still, they didn't have time to ponder the possibility, it was a do-or-let-an-innocent-child-die situation, after all.

"Captain Gerald," Eve called, speaking quickly once he acknowledged her call. "Anchor and I will go ahead and rescue Brain. Please try to find a way to bypass the gates in the meantime."

"What do you mean, Miss?" The captain inquired, confusion painting his face.

Instead of replying, Eve and Anchor turned to face the gates, their bodies glowing a faint blue before suddenly disappearing, leaving behind glowing-blue silhouettes in the spot they once stood. Steam rose from the ground and silhouettes themselves, indicating their temperature. [4]

"We're here, captain." The woman's voice echoed from behind the gates, he and his men trying not to appear openly startled. Peering through the opening, he saw both Eve and Anchor – but how had they passed to the other side?

'_Is that Biotic?'_ Gerald wanted to ask, but decided against it after hearing another cry from the child. His face instantly hardened, nodding briskly. "Get going! We'll try to open the door from this side!"

Understanding, the two disappeared from his view shortly. One of his subordinates suddenly showed up, waving a pistol in his hand. "Hey! That mad scientist is armed, you need –"

"Stop it!" Gerald snapped, turning away from the gates to face the guard. "Giving firearms to untrained civilians will only endanger them!"

"But…"

He glanced at Oberon and Ophelia, who had joined the guard at the control panel to try and fix it, seemingly unconcerned for Eve and Anchor. "If they can use… Biotics…" he started reluctantly, as he wasn't sure if there was a Biotic power that let people phase through solid obstacles – not that it was important at the moment. "They've lived in the forest amongst the wild predators, too. I'm sure they can handle themselves."

The guard nodded as Gerald narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular. "However, it is still our duty to safeguard the people, not let others do our job! Find a way to get in on the double!"

"Sir yes sir!"

* * *

Far from the main gates of the Prothean ruin, a tall man with a mostly shaved head ran as fast as he could deep within the complex. His legs ached, and the blue suit he wore was covered in dirt, mud, and dried blood, giving him the appearance of someone who had been in hell and back. Hunching over, he kept running, trying to balance the weight on his back – a five-year-old boy, restrained for the most part by several ropes.

The child struggled, trying to get out. But the man wouldn't have any of that, quickly using the back of his pistol to smack him in the head, however awkward the movement may be – but in the end it was a futile effort, as the boy just began to cry loudly.

The man dropped the boy to the ground roughly, cursing himself for not gagging him earlier. Before he could do anything, though, the sound of many human voices echoes throughout the chambers, causing the man to panic, pick up the boy, and start running again regardless of his wailing captive.

'_They're coming! Those fools, they don't even know that our civilization is doomed!' _He ran around frantically, the flashlight from his Omni-Tool illuminating his path as he looked around at the tall, cylindrical pods scattered amongst the ruins. Some of the pods were broken open, the lifeless and dried skeletons of anthropoid aliens clad in a distinctly ancient Japanese-esque armor lying inside and indicating its uselessness.

It was chance, really, that he had stumbled upon this place – no, it was fate! He was fated to survive this Ragnarok and give new life to the human race!

'_But only if I can find a working Prothean cryogenic pod!' _Manuel repeated in his head, darting from one pod to another with the boy on his back. _'I need at least two – no, three! There must be one boy and one girl – an Adam and an Eve – to rebuild our civilization, but I must be the one to take care of them and teach them once the apocalypse has passed!'_

Finally, he found a large terminal that came to life as soon as he came close. The former scientist smiled at the sight. "Finally. Bless the Lord…"

The man began to tap on the holo-screen rapidly despite the fact that it appeared to be only incomprehensible static. But to Manuel's eyes, which had been blessed by the Protheans, he could decipher what hid beneath the surface with little difficulty.

The sound of a massive machine roared to life in the distance, but Manuel knew that it was simply a gate he had previously opened sealing itself off. The noise drowned out the clanging footsteps that grew closer, indicating that they had already reached the first gate and that he needed to hurry up.

After furiously tapping on the terminal for another minute, the image he was looking for finally appeared. It was a detailed map of the facility, including his location and the locations of functional cryogenic pods. They was only one, but the boy's small size meant that Manuel could squeeze in too if it came down to it.

Without wasting anymore time, Manuel memorized the image of the Prothean unsealing the cryogenic pod before entering in the right sequence. The sound of the gates closing echoed behind him as he darted towards his destination with they annoying brat on his back.

He reached the functional pod in no time, putting his gun to the side and furiously typing into the console. The boy had been dumped off to the side like a sack of potatoes, certain that he wouldn't run away due to his bounded limbs. He _was_ destined to father the future of humanity, after all.

The pod opened with a hiss, the seams pulling back to reveal an anthropoid alien, its head covered in a layered carapace unlike the Krogan. It had two pairs of eyes, each with dual pupils, three pairs of nostrils, and a thin layer of ice that covered its skin from the cryogenic process. It wore a red armor covered in the same patterns as those of the corpses he had come across earlier, but its three-fingered hand and two-toed feet were exposed. Why, he didn't know – and didn't care.

Manual tried to get the alien out of the pod – a task that proved to be too difficult, as the alien was very heavy and he nearly broke his arms trying to lift it. After several futile attempts, he sat on the ground, panting to catch his breath.

While the former scientist rested, gun pointed at the boy who looked more like an oversized caterpillar at this point – Manuel realized that he still needed to find a girl to pair with the boy if he wanted to rebuild humanity. He doubted that he'd have time for that, though, if those stupid morons were already here…

"You! Drop your weapon and release Brian now!"

Manuel's lips spread into a maniac grin upon hearing those words. _The Lord still smiles upon humanity!_

From the dim light coming from the cryogenic pod, Manuel saw a dark-haired girl around the same age as the brat he had abducted approaching them! His grin widened, it was perfect! Humanity could now survive and rebuild!

But his delusions did little to cloud his judgement. Though the little girl in red and white would be a perfect mate for the boy, her aggressive stance and the longsword med of metal pointed at him made it clear that she didn't appreciate what he was doing at all.

Manuel wanted to laugh at the girl's choice of weapon, but what sane parent would hand their child a gun?

"D-drop your gun! Now!"

Getting impatient, the girl barked out a command, but the quaver in her voice gave her away. Manuel would be sure to explore that weakness.

_It is for the survival of our species. The Lord will forgive me._

"I think not, little red," He replied, jabbing the gun barrel lazily at the motionless little human caterpillar next to him. "Come a step closer with that thing and he'll be dead before you can cut me up."

Her ruby eyes seemed to glow momentarily, but with the lighting in the bunker he couldn't be sure. One thing was certain, though – she'd crush him in a heartbeat if he let his guard down, judging by the way her hand kept clenching as if she was imagining breaking his neck.

'_Perhaps this boy was her friend and she's pissed that I took him…?'_

After a tense moment in standoff, the girl's eyes widened slightly before she took a step back, making Manuel grin. _'She's smart, and brave too, coming this far all alone… A perfect specimen. Now I must hurry before I'm found.'_

"Good girl," he said quietly, gun still pointed at the boy even though he wouldn't kill him – not that the girl knew. "Now, why don't you drop your weapon and get in the – hmm?"

The scientist blinked twice upon seeing a shadow loom from behind him. He tried to crane his neck and look back, but before he could, he felt a cold sensation on the back of his neck…

And then there was pain! Visions flooded his mind, overwhelming his senses! He tried to scream, but no words came out of his mouth. Before long, he knew no more…

* * *

Meanwhile, Anchor watched everything unfold: first, there was a figure that slowly stood up from within the pod that Manuel was leaning against. It was nothing like any alien that existed in the databank she carried from her time as **'Lunar VI: Hannibal' **at all, and it certainly wasn't an organism from Elrios that Mother Eve had showed her during one of her stories, either.

Then the figure stumbled, his three-digit hand touching the mad man's neck before they both collapsed in a heap.

_My chance!_

Anchor broke into a sprint, covering the distance between them in a blink. She leapt over the bounded boy, positioning herself between the two, one hostile and one unknown, and Brian, her optics and other sensors observing the unconscious forms quickly.

Planting her sword blade-first into the ground, she let it dissolve into a mote of grey particles that disappeared into the void. Kneeling down, she hastily untied the boy, before checking for injuries. "Brian, are you okay?"

"S-Sis Anchor?" The little boy stammered, his eyes trying to focus on her. He didn't appear to be badly hurt, thankfully.

The little synthetic nodded, giving him an assuring smile. "Yes, Anchor is here to save you. Everything will be alright… Let Anchor check your wounds."

She worked quickly, Brian continuously complaining that he was aching all over. To her relief, aside from the scratched on his legs, the rest of his injuries were simply bruises, most likely due to Manuel's rough handling of the boy.

Anchor held out her palm and started healing the wounds on Brian's legs, but stiffened when the previously thought-to-be unconscious alien began to move.

The alien rose to its feet slowly, Anchor watching its every movement carefully. It blinked in confusion, fumbling around as if it couldn't balance on its legs – a presumed side effect of cryogenic sleep – before its gaze settled on the pair. It took a step forward on shaky legs, then another and another until he towered over the two.

Brian shot a fearful glance at the alien, Anchor adjusting her position to protect him more. For the first time, she thanked the borderline inability to visually show emotion that all synthetics had. It made her that much more difficult to predict.

But perhaps it was this emotionless that caused the alien to focus on her despite the fact that she didn't have any visible weapon on her. Maybe she was just overthinking things and the alien merely focused on her because Brian was too injured and scared to be much of a threat.

The staring contest lasted for a full minute, neither blinking, as if it were a sign of weakness. Finally relenting, the alien knelt down, silently extending his hand towards her forehead.

It was then that Anchor decided to speak; she didn't want to find out what would happen as soon as their skin made contact, especially considering what had happened when the alien contacted with Manuel earlier.

"Stop. What are you trying to do?"

Four eyes blinked as the alien's hand stopped a few inches away from Anchor. The mysterious alien slowly rose to its feet, speaking for the first time in a deep baritone and perfect English. "I thought you were too frightened by the human to speak, little one. It seems I was wrong…" His eyes then narrowed into a frown. "You don't have the scent of a human child; you smell more inorganic. What are you?"

Anchor glanced at Brian and then at the four-eyed alien, silently panicking while slowly pushing the boy further away from the alien. Her gauntlet hand was preparing to Nano-craft her longsword as they spoke should the alien be hostile, even though she knew that the better option would be to use _'Photon Flash'_ and turn herself into energy to dodge incoming attack – but that would leave the boy behind her wide open to attack.

It wasn't that she had heroic syndrome or anything; it was just that she was confident in Mother Eve's techniques. She could afford to take one or two hits without much damage. Besides, it wasn't like she was alone in this endeavor.

Anchor stood slowly, holding out a hand protectively to ward off any unwanted advances from the alien.

The alien glared at the dark-haired synthetic as if suddenly realizing something. "I see. A machine designed to safeguard an organic master… such foolish, primitive-minded things humans are…"

At those words, Anchor felt a surge of emotion – something that she had never felt before, not even when the System Alliance personnel tried to shut her down when she was still 'Hannibal.' It took her just a moment to identify this feeling as, 'anger;' anger at how this alien was bad-mouthing her 'mother' and her species, despite having slept in that strange pod for who knows how long and couldn't have possibly known anything about human civilization until just now.

Of course, being called _'just a machine'_ hurt too, but it was still more reasonable than this groundless insult.

However, before she could voice her complaints, the alien suddenly stiffened and straightened up. Anchor wasn't surprised, though, as the reason for the alien's strange actions would be her 'mother' materializing behind the alien itself, a familiar black drone – Moby – with its sharp horn a hair's breadth away from impaling its neck.

"It could be said that all advanced civilizations have their basic sciences based firmly on mathematics, if we were to look at that current galactic history," Eve said, her tone unreadable. "However, it seems that the Prothean have based their sciences off of something else. Organic chemistry, perhaps? Rather interesting."

Walking slowly from behind the Prothean, Eve turned to face him. Her lips curved slightly, but her golden eyes did not smile at all. "Still, that does not mean one can belittle others for the sake of one's ego. Or harming those who save you because they are not what expected. That – that is just rude and ungrateful."

The alien was silent, glaring with all four eyes at the white-haired synthetic. But Eve's cold smile didn't falter in the least. _Political training and such. _"So, shall we cease this pointless hostility and talk like civilized beings, or shall we embark on the path of a warrior and establish dominance through force to determine who's superior first?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**[1] No cookie for correctly guess what this family based off, it's blatantly obvious.**

**[2] The Codex about Medi-Gel never state anything about broken bones, thus I assumed that mending broken bones instantly is out of its capability.**

**[3] The mad assistant you met in the first mission of the game. Who's all but telling you to the face that he looked into that Prothean Beacon before you and Saren and when it still intact.**

**[4] I take the flavor text of Eve's ability literally; specifically the Photon Blink / Flash. And on another unrelated note; Protoss Zealot's Charge (aka Chargelot) behave the same as this move too, lore-wise of course!**

* * *

**The early draft of the story has Eve stumbled upon Prothean ruin and awaken Javik. But it'll be illogical about technology from different sources interacting with each other as I mentioned before. So I turned to another choice; I select Manuel which people tend to forget that he's another one beside Shepard and Saren who could interact with Prothean technology. But then again, Manuel appeared insane and has only one screen time in the entire trilogy and never mention again, so it's easy to forget I guess.**

**And so **_**'The Oldest Troll in Mass Effect's galaxy'**_** has been released about 3-4 years earlier than scheduled, marking the point this fanfiction officially went off the canon rail.**

**Reviews and criticisms are appreciated. As I'm still not sure of option to proceed.**

**PS: For those who's not well-verse in Elsword lore: Eve's a survivor of synthetic civilization wiped out long ago in the past, and she survived by being put in hibernation pod in an underground bunker with the objective of to awaken and rebuild the civilization in the future when the cataclysm has long passed... well, sound familiar?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Everyone, Please thank ****Rosamanelle for his hard work of Beta this chapter for you!**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Bluff or not to bluff**

Eve carefully examined the intimidating form of the Prothean that stood before her, studying his body language while maintaining an expression of indifference. Her hands, which were folded behind her back, silently signalled for Anchor and Brian to get away just in case, to which the girl complied by carrying the boy on her shoulder and limping away in silence.

Both sides remained still. Although Moby's horn was pointed threateningly at the Prothean's neck, she still wasn't going to let her guard down. After all, she was no stranger to war and conflict. Once one has been through both often enough, they could recognize another veteran in an instant, even if they were alien. And all of her senses told her that this Prothean was one.

Four eyes glared at Eve, his lips parted to slightly reveal white fangs, as if trying to intimidate her. Both sides did not want to lose this standoff, so the staring contest lasted for a while longer.

That is, it continued until Eve heard a shout from Anchor, who had carried the boy away until they were no longer in sight. "Mother, we can't open the gates!"

The reason Anchor panicked despite their ability to phase through solid objects was simple: Brain couldn't do the same, and as such they must find a normal means of getting out. Although his wounds may have been healed, the threat of starvation and dehydration still loomed over him.

She may have been overthinking things – as if the System Alliance was going to ignore this kind of discovery. Sure, the local guards didn't have the heavy machinery required to cut through the place, but the same couldn't be said for the fleets that flew over top of the planet.

However, it was at that moment that the Prothean acted; perhaps he thought that she might be distracted by the voice – which was true, to an extent.

The first sign was that the body of the Prothean started to glow green, unlike the human Biotic soldiers that Eve had seen pass by once back in the colony. But from the Element Zero emitted from his body, there was no doubt that the Prothean was going to fight, despite both sides knowing absolutely nothing about each other!

Then the aura surrounding the Prothean burst out in all directions like a great tide, sweeping dust from the ground and pushing the air away from the epicenter with so much force that even some of the metal structures around them were flung away like they were made of cardboard. Even Moby wasn't spared from the carnage, hurling him away for dozens of meters before he could regain his balance.

But, unlike her drone, Eve was spared from the Prothean's wrath thanks to her quickly phasing from the physical realm, leaving behind only a silhouette of glowing blue plasma that let the Biotic wave pass through like it was nothing. Emerging behind the Prothean, Eve stretched out her hand, ready to slap the back of his head and incapacitate him.

If only it connected…

The Prothean reacted the moment he saw her vanish, and her palm met his armor-clad arm instead of his head as he turned around, the other palm pulsating with the same green aura from before. He hurled the green bolt towards Eve, knowing that she couldn't dodge such a shot while she was in midair.

But the Biotic attack sailed harmlessly through her torso as she phased herself out of the physical realm once more!

The Prothean gritted his teeth, blocking another slap that came from the left side. He gathered his Biotic aura around him before it burst outwards in all directions once more. And once again, it failed to hit the Nasod Empress, his eyes darting across the battle field, ignoring the blue silhouettes of his opponent, before dropping his elbows rapidly and blocking what would've been a strike to his solar plexus. Yet before he could counterattack, Eve whisked away into the ether again.

A moan from a nearby opened pod alerted the Prothean to another presence. His eyes lit upon another being in the immediate area, and with a flick of his wrist, he set a Biotic projectile ripping towards the downed form of Manuel!

Eve suddenly materialized in the projectile's path, both palms held outwards, golden eyes narrowed as she braced for impact.

When the Biotic projectile struck her, Eve found herself propelled backwards a few meters, her feet still planted firmly in the ground thanks to her gravity manipulation ability. Luckily, the impact was absorbed with no damage thanks to the basic fighting technique of all those native to Elrios – whether you were non-sentient wildlife or not – which turned one's own life force into a forcefield of sorts that protected the user from harm. It would work so long as they weren't exhausted, and worked so well that their physical body wouldn't be scratched if even a house-sized meteorite rammed into them at relativistic velocity. [1]

Sure, in her case – and by extension, in the case of all Nasod – it was initially a structural field technology intended to imitate the effects of said life force projection, but as she grew as a person and a sentient being, it became more of a mix between natural and technological, something she was extremely proud of.

Still, it seemed that her taking a direct hit instead of dodging had an effect on the Prothean, as he stopped his attacks before he spat out words laced with contempt. "I see, you're another one created to only protect its master. How predictable."

Eve arched an eyebrow. Well, two can play at this game.

She then replied smoothly, her voice giving away nothing. "In reality, that was me protecting the both of you."

That had quite an effect on the four-eyed alien, as he blinked several times before returning to his fighting stance. "And just what are you trying to protect me from?"

Eve coyly curled a hand over her mouth, only half-hiding the small, sly smile that crept on her lips, a look she had perfected over the course of her travels. "The colonist guards are coming in search of that man. If they find you here with his corpse," she nodded to where Manuel lay unconscious "I doubt they will be willing to listen to what you have to say later on."

The Prothean scowled. "I can always blame it on your no-longer-functional wreckage after I destroy you."

Eve giggled softly, mockingly, her hand dropping to her side. "Do all Prothean have such senses of humor?" The Prothean's eyes narrowed at her words, yet he held his tongue as she continued. "Have you forgotten that you could no hit me once? I could always let you kill that man as I hide, waiting for the other humans to catch up and find this crime scene. That's not including the boy that Anchor has with her – a witness of your hostility towards humanity. And if you try to shut him up… Well, your advanced brain must understand faster than we 'primitives,' no?"

The Prothean scowled, the green glow of the Biotic around his form seeping away. His hands clenched tightly, before he turned away from Eve to stare into the distance.

He finally spoke, his tone indicating that he didn't expect much from the response. "How many of my kind have you found here?"

Eve recalled the number of corpses within the pods, but only paused momentarily before speaking. "You are the first one I have found alive in this ruin, unless you count the computer terminal over there."

She pointed in the general direction that Anchor and Brian had run off in before continuing. "However, the screen is just a mess of static, so I am not sure if we can use it to get out of here."

The Prothean crossed his arms, turning back to glare at her disbelievingly. "Then how did you get in here in the first place?"

Eve shrugged, pointing at Manuel. "We followed him here, and the gates closed behind us."

The Prothean let out a huff, unfolding his arms. "I see. Let me take a look at the terminal, then."

As the alien marched off towards the terminal, Eve turned to the mad scientist's unconscious form. With a flick of her palm, he began to float off of the ground and drift towards her. Moby quickly rejoined his mistress before the two of them followed the Prothean, keeping him well within sight.

Inwardly she let out a sigh of relief, glad that her bluff about him making an enemy of every human here should he remain hostile worked. It really prevented complications that were easily avoided – the death of the Prothean being one of them.

After all, she too was curious as to why they disappeared from the galaxy. Who better to ask than the Prothean himself?

When they reached the terminal – which still looked like static to Eve – the Prothean quickly rushed over and tapped on it restlessly, eyes locked on the unseen information the panel displayed. Eve guess it was Prothean encryption.

It was a strange way to do it, but also fascinating…

Eve stopped her musings once she registered movement. Turning to face the possible threat, she relaxed when she saw Anchor walk over with Brian over her shoulder, looking disappointed for reasons she could only guess.

"I want to go home now, Sis… Please?"

The kid whined loudly, prompting a response from the girl carrying him. "Anchor knows, but we can't open the gate. We need to wait for someone to open it for us."

Seeing the dissatisfied look on his face, Anchor sighed and patted his head comfortingly with her free hand.

However, such comfort was short lived when it was interrupted by a loud crash, causing everyone to tense. Even the whining boy was too scared to complain, especially once he registered the Prothean at the terminal console that was the source of the noise.

Eve looked at the Prothean and noted his sorrowful features, both of his hands resting on the flickering console that seemed to reflect his mood. Then he sighed, sadness permeating his voice. "None of them are left… all of my comrades… gone… just like that?"

Eve averted her eyes from the Prothean. Although she could relate to the loss of all of his people, she was quite certain that the alien wouldn't accept any of her condolences, if his attitude was anything to go by. Instead she opted for the best option – simply observing and intervening if necessary.

After all – Eve glanced towards Anchor, who was standing sentry next to the fearful-looking boy, his gaze shifting between the Prothean and Manuel – she was here to save this boy. Here, she wasn't the Empress; she was a woman.

The silence only lasted until the ground shook, explosions sounding in the distance and sending the boy to his knees. Anchor, alarmed, glanced in the direction of the explosions before looking to Eve. Eve herself watched the Prothean, watching as he raised his head to look at her as if demanding an explanation.

With no reason to lie, Eve spoke plainly. "It seems the colonial guards have finally gained some heavy equipment to force open the gate. Or the military has come to secure this place, although I am inclined to believe it is the latter."

The alien narrowed his eyes before turning back to the console. Soon enough, the rumble of giant machinery was heard, the distinct sound of metal grating on metal shrieking through the air.

Anchor was the first to speak. "The gate… it's moving…"

That garnered and excited reaction from the boy beside her. "R-Really? I… I can go home now?"

"Anchor hopes so too," she replied quickly, not noticing the boy's grip on her tighten as she focused on her mother in silent questioning.

"Mr. Prothean here just opened the gates for us. You should thank him, even if he was not… pleasant earlier."

The Prothean, who was as of yet unnamed, merely huffed in annoyance and looked away from the group as if they were an eyesore – to which Eve had to resist the urge to strike up a conversation with him. It was frustrating, but she knew that talking to him now would only worsen the situation as tempers were still high and trust had been yet to be developed.

Rapid footsteps echoed in the underground bunker, a flashlight heralding the arrival of a squad of fully armed soldiers dressed in skin-tight, white armoured suits emblazoned with the System Alliance insignia. They quickly zeroed in on the four as soon as they came into view.

Three of the soldiers immediately went to the Prothean, guns pointed at him menacingly while the one who seemed to be in charge held out her palm. Then her outstretched palm began to glow the characteristic blue glow of Biotic as she shouted some sort of command in Standard Galactic Language, most likely for the Prothean to put his hands in the air – not that it would do much good, as he probably couldn't speak it.

However, since the alien was perfectly capable of speaking in English with Eve and Anchor, she might as well guess that he could speak Standard Galactic as well.

While the three soldiers were 'securing' the Prothean, the other four came over to the three of them an immediately checked for any injuries.

"I am alright," she said coolly, brushing the soldier away. Internally, she was debated whether to tell them what happened during their earlier confrontation or not, but ultimately decided against it, instead nodding her head towards the Prothean who was being escorted to the entrance. "We found him in a cryogenic pod while Manuel threatened my daughter."

The soldier's visor shifted slightly to look at the unconscious form of the mad man behind Eve. "We thank you for your cooperation, madam. Your butler and maid are waiting for you at the entrance with the other colonial guards. I would suggest you and the children return immediately."

"Of course. I will see you at another time, then." Eve bid the soldier farewell before helping Anchor carry out Brian, not sparing another look at the collapsed mad scientist.

'Mother' and 'daughter' were both silent as they carried the boy out, passing many soldiers that the System Alliance had sent to secure the place. Most of the soldiers ignored them while others barred their way, only backing off after hearing the com chatter on them.

After ten long minutes of nothing but hallway, they finally spotted a ray of sunlight that shone ahead of them. Both Eve and Anchor soon found themselves out in a clearing, Oberon and Ophelia calmly waiting amongst colonial guards. They nodded to the trio as a greeting.

As they left behind the Prothean ruins to return to the colony, Eve couldn't help but wonder what the System Alliance was going to do to they only survivor of a civilization long gone. What if he ratted her out?

But those worries lasted for only a moment before Eve shook her head; she was overthinking things again. It wasn't like the Prothean was immediately going to be trusted simply because he was Prothean, and she had prepared a contingency plan in case they wanted to examine them. After all, how else had they passed the first hospital check?

* * *

Three days after the kidnapping situation, the colony of Eden Prime had returned to normal – that is, since the fleet over the colony had withdrawn, many colonists believed that the danger had passed and that no raiders would attempt anything for months to come.

For Eve, she knew that the situation hadn't calmed down at all. On the contrary, things were beginning to heat up, simmering below the surface so subtle that only the incredibly keen would be able to spot it.

She had heard the sound of a few System Alliance dropships a few days back, and when she had gone for a 'stroll' with Oberon in the forest, they found military personnel patrolling around the perimeter of the ruins. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the departed fleet was to escort the visiting big wig to a safer world, what with his visit suddenly being canned and all.

After all, the last time they let the legacy of an ancient civilization linger for too long, the Beacon that contained a vast wealth of knowledge blew up and torched a section of the colony, killing hundreds.

_'It seems like they're more dedicated to keeping the ruins safe than saving civilians…'_

Eve thought, turning away from the window of her 'family's' temporary shelter, looking at the other three who were sitting on a small couch watching TV. She smiled at the sight of her retainers winding down after so long.

Well, all of them but Ferdinand.

Then again, he was rarely active during the last 50,000 years of isolation, so maybe that's why he volunteered to stay behind and guard the Chronos Library. Maybe it was his way of making up for his lack of duty in the past. At least she knew that he was ready to come to her side should the need arise, just like old times.

"–other Eve…"

Blinking, Eve snapped out of her thoughts to return to the present. "My apologies, Anchor. I was spacing out. What do you need?"

"Um…" The synthetic girl pointed to the Tv, which was really just a screen that hovered over a projector on the desk. "Why does every sci-fi movie that has robots make the robots the antagonist?" Anchor tilted her head. "Is it just because it's a popular idea?"

Eve blinked, eyes wandering to the screen and reading the title of the movie playing – it left little up to interpretation.

Slowly walking to the couch, she glanced at her retainers questioningly, as if asking why they didn't explain such a concept to Anchor, before realizing that they didn't know much about the topic either.

After all, for the Nasod, who have a clear hierarchy and the ruling class's ability to access their subject's thoughts to issue absolute orders, there was no need for the _'art of persuasion'_ with their subjects. If you wanted something done or to be believed, why waste convincing them when you make an absolute order?

Despite all that being said, Eve was still intrigued by humanity's – and all non-hive-mind society's – method of conveying one's thoughts and opinions to gain support from the masses, not only because of its complicated nature, but because of all the effort put in to make their persuasion as effective as possible. But, like every weapon, there were two edges to the nature of persuasion…

"It is a way to imprint a certain mindset into the population," Eve answered, her eyebrows twitching slightly at the notion. She waved a hand at the screen, which now showed soldiers in futuristic gear – the protagonists – fighting against a giant robot ten stories high. The robot had three torsos on a tripod base, each torso with a head and arms of its own that resembled samurai, right down to the curved laser blades in each hand slicing everything in its path. [2]

Tearing her eyes away from the TV, Eve resumed her explanation. "In this case, you know that the galactic community has outlawed our existence, no?" Seeing Anchor bob her head, the Empress continued, glaring at the TV as if it had offended her some way. "This is a subliminal message to all people, telling them to not create self-aware synthetics and that self-aware synthetics are evil – subtle demonization, so to speak. The message is not limited to children, however, as even adults are a target of this propaganda."

"It's another kind of preventative measure to stop people from creating sentient synthetics?" Anchor asked.

Eve nodded slightly. "That much is obvious, although it doesn't completely stop people from doing so; your birth is a testimony to that."

Anchor nodded in understanding as she repeated her Mother and Oberon's conversation from much, much earlier. "And since they've never met a real synthetic, they'll take it as the truth. Anchor understands a little now why Mother took Anchor down to Earth that day."

The petite girl gave Eve a thankful smile, but then her red eyes widened before she stood up, speaking urgently. She quickly tapped the button on a small remote to shut down the TV. "Mother, Anchor nearly forgot! Anchor promised with everyone to visit Brian this afternoon in the hospital. Anchor should prepare!"

Eve blinked, confused for a moment, unable to fathom why they would have to prepare as they only had one set of clothing since they never needed for them to change. Then it dawned on her that Anchor wanted to bring some presents as a gesture of goodwill towards the traumatized child, and although they had saved up quite a bit of Credit during their last few weeks, enough to purchase a present, they had no idea what to get!

The Empress sported a thoughtful look as she recalled her memories from Elrios – what her and her friends did in such situations. She hesitated slightly to draw upon such memories, but she figured that since their cultures weren't too different, she would be able to think of something suitable for a child.

"Should we bring them some homemade snacks, perhaps?" Eve suggested gently, glancing over to the modular kitchen and small fridge that came standard for all Space-Age temporary shelters.

Anchor smiled radiantly at the idea, before visibly drooping like a wilting flower. "But Mother Eve, Anchor's never cooked before…"

She looked at Eve expectantly, causing her to sigh. "I know a little about cooking, but seeing that we must reach our destination in about a half hour, I doubt we have time to do things the 'normal' way."

Anchor sulked slightly at the answer, but she knew that her mother was right and that she couldn't blame anyone but herself for getting so absorbed into the movie and forgetting to check the time. Now, she and her mother had to visit Brian empty handed… or did they?

Golden eyes staring at Anchor, Eve pointed to the blue crystal embedded in her forehead. "Have you forgotten what I've told you about Nasod tools and how they're really just crutches? That it is up to the individual's creativity and imagination to bring out one's full potential?"

Anchor lifted her right arm, staring at the ruby crystal grafted into her palm before looking back at Eve. "Anchor thinks that Anchor can create food with this, but Anchor will need material…"

Eve looked to the small kitchen – specifically the fridge – and chuckled lightly. Since they were Nasod, little food needed to be consumed and therefore there was little in the fridge. Which, in reality, was the source of the problem they currently faced: There simply were no raw materials to turn into edible food, unless they were to use a chunk of their wall. Which would be difficult to explain to colonial management. [3]

Still, if she really wanted to, Eve could craft the foodstuffs out of thin air – after all, turning energy into matter was child's play for an ancient civilization like Elrios, where their science was based off of life energy manipulation as it was the energy that radiated from the legendary stone of the planet that brought life itself.

Of course, there was an even simpler option: stop at the grocery store on their way over to the hospital to buy something for the boy, but Eve knew that it was the feelings poured into the gift that mattered, not the gift itself. So, she wouldn't create matter out of thin air for her daughter, nor would she allow her to access the raw material stored within a Dimension Link to the Chronos Library. Since Anchor had yet to master the art of creating matter out of thin air using energy-mass conversion, they needed to find a raw material for her to convert…

Or maybe this will push Anchor through that roadblock, which would be better than having to put her in a life or death situation to make the same achievements.

As if fate smiled upon them, a rumbling sound came through the window, causing the occupants to look over and catch a glimpse of the small truck passing by the temporary garbage dump. Such was the flaw of temporary shelters; no garbage chutes like those in the skyscrapers of the central resident sector meant there was much more garbage here to be picked up later.

Eve looked at the pile of garbage for a moment, before she turned towards Anchor and nodded to the window. Anchor looked nervous as she walked towards the door as Oberon and Ophelia glanced at each other, worry marring the maid's face as she turned to look at the Empress.

Eve knew what her retainer wanted to say. In response, she shot them a mischievous look before following her daughter out of the shelter.

* * *

"Wow, this chocolate is really good! It just melts in your mouth!"

"Hey! Don't steal my share, Draco!"

"Please teach me how to make this, Anchor!"

"Eh… eh… Anchor…"

The hospital ward of sector C-13, which was decorated with only a few paintings that hung off of the grey walls, felt a little livelier with the addition of a horde of children sitting around and on a couple of beds, chatting or eating treats with their friends. Parents – or at least, those who were off duty – had their own get together, seated next to Brian's parents who had also been injured by the mad scientist the other day. Eve and her retainers looked after the children in the meantime.

Well, it wasn't like they were very far from the children, and this particular ward was empty of other patients as well, so there was no worry about disturbing the others.

Eve chuckled as some of the children begged Anchor for her chocolate recipe, but given how the treats came to be, Anchor's hesitation was understandable.

After all, the Empress still couldn't forget how her friends in Elrios reacted to her method of 'cooking' using her abilities when they first met. Although she had admittedly improved since then, it still remained a sour spot between them all to the point where they'd avoid letting her cook at all costs.

Despite her shyness, Eve had to praise Anchor for making the food correctly despite attempting to use her Crafter for such purposes for the first time. No one had commented that her chocolate tasted funny, quite the opposite actually.

Still, Anchor wasn't alone in this endeavour, as her seniors had shared their own experiences and aid, which is why it came out tasting good instead of disastrous like Eve's first attempt at 'cooking' a long time ago.

Eve returned her attention towards the children who bugged Anchor about the chocolate. Deciding to nip the problem in the bud, Eve replied for Anchor with a mysterious smile. "I do not believe you wish to know. Trust me, child." Then she winked. "It is a family secret."

The girl who was around Anchor's apparent age tried again, this time with sad puppy-dog eyes, but Eve wouldn't buy any of it. After all, humanity just wasn't ready for such revelations and wouldn't be for another few millennia. Or ever.

As the girl began to pout, the door at the end of the ward hissed open. A man and three women, faces all covered by breathing masks and dressed in nursing uniforms, stepped through, wheeling a stretcher with them. They stood for only a moment before making a beeline towards the two beds next to where the children were playing with each other – more specifically, the bed of Brian's parents.

Eve tilted her head slightly at the strangeness of the nurses, alarms ringing in the back of her mind. They practically reeked of untrustworthiness. After all, the white uniforms weren't exactly enough to hide the skin-tight, black-and-silver armor beneath properly from even the naked eye, not to mention the lumps around their thighs that were shaped suspiciously like guns. The only reason why she hadn't done anything yet was the fact that even when they stood three steps away from the parents gathered around them, not a single adult seemed to do anything about them, suspicious as they may be. [4]

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, sir, but could you tell me where I could find Brian Polpoka?"

Okay, this is getting ridiculous, Eve thought, now even more alarmed. Oberon and Ophelia, also noticing the strange newcomers, stood up quickly, ready to act on a moment's notice. Anchor quickly excused herself from the little party to stand by Eve. If they were really nurses who worked here, why would they have to ask such questions in the first place?

Once the parents pointed the suspicious 'nurses' in Brian's direction, the four made their way over just in time to hear the man step forward and speak cheerfully – too cheerfully. "You must be Brian Popolka, correct?"

The boy nodded, clearly confused. "We're here to transfer you to a more adequate facility. Please get on the stretcher, time is of essence…"

Of course, the other children overheard and began to protest, saying that the temporary doctor told them that he would be discharged in two days alongside his parents. Although Eve and her company weren't present during the diagnosis, they could tell from their scans that Brian didn't have any serious injuries; the only reason why he stayed in the hospital was so they could monitor him for any stress resulting from the traumatic experience.

As the chaos unfolded, the male raised his voice, his rage reverberating throughout the room. "Shut it, kids! This is an order from people much smarter than you, so step aside before you get hu-!"

He stopped mid-sentence rather stiffly, as if realizing that he shouldn't have said anything – even if it got the children to quiet down. However, it only confirmed Eve's suspicions, as her and her companions prepared silently for the inevitable confrontation with the imposters…

* * *

It took almost all of Kai Leng's efforts to stop his seething rage from escaping and causing him to kill everyone in the hospital before he reached his primary objective. It seemed that just when he was about to walk away with the prize the Illusive Man instructed him to retrieve, fate decided to inconvenience him…

The reason why Leng was here instead of investigating the SPECTRE of the Citadel Council going rogue was that the Cerberus Leader learned from a planted mole that they found another set of Prothean ruins on Eden Prime a few days ago. Thus, he sent Leng and his three agents to retrieve whatever was useful, before the Alliance stupidly handed it over to the alien instead of reaping the benefits for mankind.

At first, Leng thought that this was a suicide mission, because even though the fleet had already left the planet, the ruins were still heavily guarded by the Marines that the fleet left behind. Even though he was confident that he could slip into the place undetected, there was no way for him to bring back anything worthwhile without being shot to bits by said Marines – and, even if he somehow got past that, he still had only a disguised shuttle to get back into space. He doubted they could get away in that thing before the colonial defenses were alerted of the theft and shot his ship down. [5]

But it turned out that he was mistaken; the Illusive Man wasn't interested in the forsaken ruins, but in the people who interacted with the Prothean and weren't under the protection of the System Alliance – namely the kidnapped boy, the mad scientist, and the mother-and-daughter duo who somehow bypassed the gates before explosives were introduced.

Sadly, the mad scientist was out of reach due to his position, insane or not, thus the Illusive Man tasked him to focus on the other three who had less protection. He reasoned that the Prothean technology might have altered them in some way to allow them to bypass the ruin's security. Perhaps there was an imprint thin their minds that contained information that could give humanity and advantage over other lifeforms – something they would never know unless the three came into their custody and adequate facilities first.

Even if that wasn't the case, reports showed that the white-haired woman and her daughter seemed to possess a strange form of healing, which the Alliance apparently failed to see as abnormal. If they could study the two of them and their gears, perhaps Cerberus could reproduce it. And that's why the Illusive Man sent him on this mission – to abduct said people and take them into Cerberus custody.

The first part of the plan was so easy that it was insulting. Thanks to the Alliance focusing their Marines on the ruins and the colony management re-opening the Spaceport, he and his cohorts could fly into the colony in broad daylight without the local security being any the wiser. Infiltrating the colony was even easier when they used the computer virus the Illusive Man prepared for them. Once it infected the central computer, it faked dozens of orders that would keep all security personnel very, very busy until the mission was complete with plenty of time left over.

Getting into the hospital was so simple; all security measures were focused on Dr. Manuel and the ruins, too caught up in internal drama to care about civilians getting caught in the cross fire. Donning the guise of volunteer nurses, no one suspected them. Not even the parents of the brat he was about to abduct.

And, to his luck, he realized that the white-haired woman and her daughter, looking exactly the same as the pictures they have on file, had come to visit the little brat that very day. Such a coincidence cut the chase short, but also complicated things. Now he needed to come up with a way to get them to come with him, despite the fact that they weren't injured whatsoever.

"May I see the official notice of permission from the colonial registration office, please?"

There was the first wrench, thrown into his plan by none other than Leng's targets. Those unnerving gold eyes fixated on him, doing nothing to hide the owner's suspicion. From the way that the little girl looked at him, he would say that she shared her mother's thoughts. It looks like someone did their research on the inner workings of the hospital…

Kai Leng took a deep breath, calming himself slightly before trying to reason with the woman. He needed her alive, even if he just wanted to murder them all. "We are afraid that there's no time to pick up such forms. This is urgent, after all. Please cooperate."

The woman tilted her head slightly, scrutinizing Leng and his cohorts before glancing at Brian's bed briefly. "Have Brian's parents consented to having him moved?"

"No, but as I said, it's urgent."

"How urgent is this, if you can't use the official channel to transfer him?" Now the little girl piped up, her red eyes filled with just as much suspicion as her mother. "Anchor doesn't remember seeing mister around here before."

As if to supplement the girl, the black-haired maid – whose face felt so wrong that Leng was sure he'd believe it if someone told him she was a robot – spoke up. "Anchor and I worked as volunteer nurses because we are qualified while the professionals were elsewhere. We have never seen you around the hospital before."

Ah, so that explains why they're so suspicious of us. Leng thought, annoyed anew at the wary look 'Anchor' and her family gave them.

Although he still wondered how the little girl could identify people with masks on, Leng decided that the time for sweet talk was over if he ever wanted to complete this mission. Thus, he sent a quick text message via Omni-Tool to the disguised Cerberus shuttle, sending his location and a request for a quick pick-up.

Once he confirmed that transportation would be there soon, Kai Leng nodded at his cohorts. They reached under their uniforms to pull out their firearms, one of them aiming at the parents, the other two pointed at the children. He quickly grabbed his own weapon, firing into the ceiling a couple times to tell them that yes, these were real guns!

"Silence!" He bellowed, the forced smile under his mask and all pleasantry gone, replaced with the attitude of a professional killer. "The young lady, little girl, and little brat will come with us unless you want someone to get hurt!"

Of course, that was a lie. They needed to cover their tracks. Although the Illusive Man told them to avoid killing civilians if possible, Leng would do it anyway – and create a situation where it looked like one of the adults went crazy and killed all of the children before committing suicide. It would distract the investigation for sure, and no one would think to link it back to Cerberus for a long time.

Unfortunately for him, Leng forgot one crucial factors: children are unpredictable, especially when under duress.

His threat lasted for only a few seconds, until a panic broke out, followed by the whole group of children running towards their parents! Submachine gun in his hands, Leng took aim, but gritted his teeth and let go of the trigger when the boy he was order to grab ran into the middle of the group – fire now and he would be killed. Mission failure.

The only relief was that his subordinates were professional enough to not jump the gun - for now at least, but now he had to take control of the situation fast.

The solution wasn't too hard, as the little family was still – what?!

Leng quickly moved to the side, barely avoiding a fist to the face from the maid, however that also forced his aim off of the group of children. He tried to aim at his assailant, but the maid quickly spun around and kicked him in the side with enough force to send him into the wall, a nasty crack coming from his armor.

Thankfully, the body armor Leng wore under his disguise saved him from the worst, but a warning blaring through his earpiece told him that the armor was damaged. [6] He paid it no mind, flipping onto his feet just in time to avoid the follow up attack from the maid. Then a shout and gunfire caught his attention as he momentarily panicked, seeing that his goons weren't as professional as he once thought. That idiot open fired at the crowd of people, including the brat they had to abduct!

Fortunately – and unfortunately – the man in the opaque mask appeared between his men and the children, his arms crossed over his chest as the projectiles slammed into a light blue shield that he seemingly erected out of nothing. But some bullets already found their targets before he could create the shield, drawing blood from the annoying children behind him. Red blood poured forth from wounds, both deep and shallow, followed by screams of pain from those immature brats, and some parents with low pain tolerance levels.

Leng didn't care about those brats in the least – if anything, the chaos that ensued was a means to escape. The problem was that one of the screaming brats was Brian, if the blood trailing from his head was any indication. He couldn't see how bad the wound was, but Leng was sure as hell that the Illusive Man wouldn't be pleased with the development.

Of course, the Illusive Man would understand if Leng had something to show that his mission wasn't a complete failure. Since abducting the boy was growing increasingly frustrating, Leng was prepared to order his cronies to gun down the whole group of them. He didn't believe that the butler and his strange 'Biotic Barrier' would be able to hold against the automatic weapons for long. Then, he'd use the panic to get the woman and her daughter instead.

But before Leng could give the order to shoot everyone, a loud crack resounded for the second time as the first gunner met a red-and-white blur. She flew into the wall with enough force to demolish said wall – reinforced concrete and all!

Said red blur was none other than the strange little girl that Leng was supposed to abduct, standing with her gauntlet covered hand outstretched as if she was punching something. Whirling around to face Leng, her red eyes seemed to glow, but discounting that, nothing was betrayed by her facial expression. Still, he could tell that she was furious, and would not stop until he was black and blue all over…

Of course, being the professional that he was, Leng was going to use this to advantage. But, just as he thought this, an alarm rang through the hospital that one of the gathered civilians must've pulled.

Wasting no time, Leng signaled a retreat and nimbly dodged another one of his goons that was thrown into the wall by that thrice-damned maid. That left him with only one Cerberus agent. But that was also short lived as he dodged another punch from the little girl on his way to the exit. Said agent had her gun pushed upwards by the white-haired woman. The sound of gunfire roared as the agent pulled the trigger on instinct, discharging the ammo into the ceiling and sending white debris all over the place. A strange black drone rammed the agent in the gut, followed by a harsh slap to the face from the white haired woman – a rather hard slap that sent the woman flying. She would've hit Leng if he hadn't ducked at the last second!

Leng decided to bolt towards the exit and run to the rooftop, leaving behind his companions. It seems that he needs something bigger to complete his mission…

* * *

Once the terrorist-man turned tail and fled, Eve quickly raised her voice sternly at the red blur that tried to follow him, her tone leaving no room for arguments. "Anchor, enough!"

Her child halted in her steps, looking back with eyes ablaze with fury. Even her maid gave her a disapproving look, but Eve had no time for complaints – or, to be precise, those who were hit by stray shots had no time to waste. Instead of explaining, she pointed at the gathered crowd, eyes flicking over the numerous bleeding children and parents alike.

No words needed to be exchanged, however, as they all rushed to administer aid to the wounded, Oberon being the exception as he had no medical or biological knowledge. Instead, he stood guard over the door. No one waited for a qualified nurse or doctor; even the Malfoys let them tend to their wounds without complaint. After all, if those gunmen could barge into the hospital under the guise of nurses and doctors with no one raising any alarms, chances were no one else was going to come help them any time soon.

The depressing thought caused many of the adults to ignore their wounds, staggering over to the henchmen to tie them up, seize their weapons, and stand sentry despite the protests of the three impromptu medics. In the end, Eve and Anchor had to secretly scan them to see if anything was seriously wrong with them and leaving them with the advice that they should call for them immediately if something felt wrong before moving on.

Luckily, although some of the children had bullets lodged within them that required surgery to remove, none of the injuries were life-threatening. Said bullets could wait until a later date, as Eve didn't want to reveal any more Nasod abilities. Healing had already pushed the limits as it did.

While she and Anchor calmly treated the wounded, Eve began to ponder why those people came for Brian specifically, as well as her and Anchor. Was Alliance secret intelligence really so sloppy that the terrorist organization knew exactly what went on inside the Prothean ruin? Why not go after Manuel instead?

_'Ah, yes… That is the crux of it,'_ Eve thought, healing yet another gunshot wound. Her new train of thought nearly made her frown. _'That mad scientist is out of reach, simply put. Still, what makes these people think that we hold anything of value from that forsaken ruin?'_

Perhaps she, Anchor, Oberon, and Ophelia could seek asylum from the Alliance? Or maybe it was time for them to relocate to another planet before something worse came –

Her eyes widened as she sensed something coming towards them, her honed instinct and logic realizing quickly what was about to happen. Whipping around, Eve shouted briskly, fear flooding her tone. "Everyone get down!"

Oberon, who was previously guarding over Eve, sprang into action, pushing everyone to the floor as he made his way across the room. Anchor, Ophelia, and Eve began shouting orders, preparing to erect a shield to protect them from incoming harm.

But alas, with most of their processing power and energy being focused on healing the wounded – an extremely delicate process that leaves no room for error least they accidentally induce lethal cancer in people they supposed to heal – and the unexpected backup, precious milliseconds had been lost that could've gone towards creating a powerful enough shield to protect the entire ward.

An explosion followed that drowned out the panicked screams. Debris and dust filled the room, every human cowering while the synthetics struggled to maintain their hastily created shield. Chunks of concrete and metal crashed against the transparent protector insistently, but the shield held firm until only smoke remained.

The dust and smoke settled down quickly via subtle gravity manipulation from Eve, showing the extent of the damage for all to see. A section of the ward – walls, floor, and ceiling – collapsed into a sinkhole large enough for two cars to fit it, sparks from the severed electric lines flaring at random. Worst of all, the six fathers and four children who weren't within the range of the shield were now tiny, charred bits scattered around, those lucky enough to survive the blast crushed under tons of rubble!

Mothers began to call out to their loved ones desperately in the vain hope that some of them may be still alive. Eve and her retainers knew, however, that there were no signs of life beneath the rubble. They all had been crushed to death instantly.

From the gaping hole in the wall, Eve saw a human-made space shuttle painted in a pristine white, black, and yellow color scheme approach the hospital slowly. The opaque cockpit at the front shielded the pilot from prying eyes, but Eve couldn't help but glare at it anyway.

"Cerberus!" Several of the people on her side gasped in horror, some, mostly those who lost loved ones, glared at the incoming attack. Yet there was one thing in common linking them all together: fear and haplessness, as they all knew that even if they had some firearms, it would merely scratch the space shuttle's paintjob.

_"– Now it seems that you all understand what situation you're in,–"_ The voice of the man from earlier rang through the ruined ward from the hospital speakers, as if mocking their futile efforts to stop this atrocity. _"– If you had just handed over the brat without any fuss, I'd have made your deaths painless as an act of mercy. Perhaps by poisoning your food. –"_ He laughed at this, as if enjoying a joke.

Angered at the sheer audacity of the man, the gathered crowd stomped their feet and muttered, unable to do anything. Eve, Oberon, and Ophelia eyed the shuttle warily.

_"– Now, now, I guess I'll still show you some mercy. I'll let you all live if you bring me the woman in white and the little girl in red. Bring them to the rooftop. We'll be taking them somewhere where their talents won't go to waste. Do not try to trick me, for the Alliance seems more interested in the ruins than you lot and will not aid you any time soon…–"_

Then the transmission cut out, the rumbling of the shuttle's engine an eerie reminder of what would happen should they disobey the man.

Eve narrowed her eyes as she knelt next the hole in the floor, as if praying for those unfortunate souls who lost their lives, now and in the future, in this meaningless slaughter. Slowly standing up and looking at the survivors, she made up her mind instantly and nodded to Anchor. "Anchor, we will be headed to the roof. Oberon, Ophelia, stay and evacuate others. I believe there is a tunnel under this building you can escape through."

She noticed that her tone was not emotionless, no matter how hard she tried to bury her anger and despite the fact that she barely knew these people.

Anchor seemingly felt the same way, her electronic eyes doing little to hide her feelings. The surviving families nodded in grim acceptance, knowing that they were powerless to stop the terrorists. The only rational thoughts, it seemed, were supplied by her retainers.

"Milady, please."

Whatever Oberon tried to say was cut short by the Empress's sharp glare, to which he only nodded reluctantly. "Understood, milady."

Noticing that Anchor was already by her side, the two of them headed to the rooftop in silence. There were few words that could convey what they were feeling, but there was one thing they knew without doubt: These people had much to answer for.

* * *

The door to the hospital roof opened with a slight hiss, the woman and the girl that caused him so many problems stepping out and walking to the helipad – which was really a crudely drawn circle with a large 'H' in the center in yellow paint. Kai Leng had ditched his disguise during his escape, proudly displaying the Cerberus insignia on his left breast plate, not caring if anyone saw. After all, those in the hospital would be dead by the end of the day. Once he retrieved these two ladies, he was going to flatten this place regardless of what he said earlier – partly a petty payback, and partly to distract authorities.

He pulled out his sidearm, brandishing it at the girl in red as he yelled out commands. "Halt! Show me your hands, now!"

The two complied silently as Leng scrutinized them and their clothing carefully, especially the white woman's large sleeves. He came up with nothing that should be worried about, so he contacted the shuttle and ordered them to come closer, gun still pointed at the duo.

Wind blasted them as the shuttle approached the platform, messing with Leng's raven hair. Resisting the urge to flick it away, he watched them carefully. He knew what they were capable of when unarmed, and wouldn't make the same mistakes again while the shuttle couldn't hold the hospital hostage anymore.

Just as an extra precaution, Leng ordered the pilots to activate the chin-mounted heavy machine gun and to aim it at the two. As the shuttle slowly touched down, the woman spoke up for the first time, her eyes locking with his. "Tell me. Was all this violence and death necessary?"

Leng raised an eyebrow, his sidearm shifting slightly more towards her. He smiled and replied smugly. "Of course. The weaklings here have to be reminded of their place for daring to inconvenience their betters, namely me. You too will learn to respect what we did here today."

He expected a response laden with fear or anger, but neither were present on her unusually calm face. It put him on edge, but Leng chose to shake those feelings off. After all, what can an unarmed woman do with a mass accelerator gun pointed at her? Even then, she was at least a head shorter than him!

She shook her head, elaborating quietly. "No one will respect those who deliberately make innocents suffer. If this is what your organization always does, it will only make humanity hate you more, especially the relatives of those who die by your hand when you throw little tantrums like you did today."

Leng seethed at her words, snarling in response due to a lack of counterarguments. "You!"

She suddenly giggled, disregarding him and the shuttle as if they were nothing. How irritating. "Really, is everyone human in your so-called organization – Cerberus, was it? Do they all have such senses of humor?"

Leng was now conflicted: his gut instinct told him that this woman was dangerous, but his rational thoughts told him that she was bluffing – no amount of bizarre Biotic powers could put even a dent on a state-of-the-art starship like his! This was no flimsy gunship that those blue-skinned space-whores used on Illium for God's sake!

Clinging onto that thought, his smug smile returned as he taunted the woman. "If so, then what will you do about it? Have you forgotten..." he waved his free hand towards the gun on the shuttle "...that it was your fault for asking too many questions? Now, stay still and let us tie you up before we take off!"

Instead of shutting up, the woman turned to her tiny daughter and nodded. It was then that Leng realized that the girls weren't frightened in the least.

The shuttle had come to a rest of the helipad a long time ago, the pilots continuously asking Leng what to do next, but the man was too focused on the women to notice.

"On the contrary,..." the white-haired woman said, hand outstretched as if offering a handshake. "...I am offering you a last chance to surrender and face the judgement of your precious humanity's law." Her eyes narrowed dangerously, signifying that she wasn't joking in the slightest. "I do hope you refuse, so Anchor and I may deal with you in our own way."

Leng let out a sharp bark of laughter, though he wasn't stupid enough to let them out of his sight for even a split second. "You're funny, woman! What makes you think that you stand a chance against us? Have you gone insane because nothing you do will save your neighbors down below? Don't worry, we'll kill every last one of them anyway, so there's nothing for you to worry about!"

"Anchor," she called out, eyes never leaving Leng. "Take care of the shuttle and everyone inside. Do so at your own discretion, but be safe, my child."

At that order, the girl crouched like a sprinter before her form flashed blue, vanishing in the blink of an eye! Before Leng could see where she went, the panicked voice of the shuttle pilot resounded through his earpiece. _"– What the… Argh! –"_

Leng tried to ask what was going on, but a sudden surge of killing intent made him stop and turn to stare at the source.

All he could see was the white-haired woman, Eve, walking towards him slowly with both hands behind her back.

"Hmph." Leng scoffed, putting his sidearm away to draw his favorite sword from his back, holding it in a reverse-grip with his right hand and pointing it at the woman. "It seems that you're in need of discipline… Perhaps a limb or two less on your body would be a good starter!"

"Fine words for a weakling like you," the woman replied rather emotionlessly, her arms spread wide in a rather inadequate potion for hand-to-hand combat. Maybe her actions in the ward was just a stroke of luck? "Now, is your sword simply to look tough and honorable, neither of which you are?"

Another hit to Leng's pride. His face contorted with anger and he snarled. "See it for yourself!"

With a final battle cry, Leng charged forward, sword aimed to lop off the woman's arm with an upward slash – yes, the Illusive Man wanted him to bring back those into the Prothean ruins for study, but he didn't say that they had to be in perfect condition. If anything, fewer limbs meant a lower chance of escape.

However, before his sword could connect with his target, Eve raised a hand to block the incoming slash. Such a move surprised Leng, causing him to hesitate for only a fraction of a millisecond – was she bluffing, or did she really have something up her sleeve?

So, his sword slashed upwards… only to be stopped with her bare hand!

Leng's eyes widened at the sight, unable to comprehend what just happened. His Omni-Tool didn't detect any Eezo to signify the use of a Biotic or Eezo-reliant technology, like a Kinetic Barrier!

It was this momentary pause that made Leng react too slowly to Eve's next move…

Her slim hand clamped down on the blade, unafraid of the sharp edge, before using inhuman strength to plunge it deep within his right thigh, tearing through his suit and the following muscles and tendons with little difficulty.

Leng bit back the pain, attempting to wrestle his sword back into his control, but he collapsed to one knee instead. Concentration breaking as she slapped him harshly across the face, Leng was unable to react when she let go of the sword and latched onto his sword arm's elbow.

A nasty crack followed, her grip proving its strength once more as she crushed Leng's elbow. His right hand lost its grip on his sword, hanging uselessly to the side. Another slap, this one hard enough to send the crippled assassin sprawling across the ground.

Leng tried to get up despite his inability to use his right side. The woman's expression was unreadable as she stared into his eyes, doing little to hide the aura of a killer that Leng knew so well…

Seconds later, the woman's foot crashed through his knee, breaking the bone and pushing it through the tissue of his leg, blood splattering from the open wound.

She kneeled down, seemingly content to just sit there and enjoy his suffering. As she got closer, Leng saw this as a chance. He grabbed a hidden knife with his still usable left hand, plunging it towards the woman's forehead! He didn't care about the Illusive Man's orders anymore; he'd make this woman pay for humiliating him!

Yet Leng's revenge was denied when the metal shattered against her forehead. His eyes widened at the sight, quickly coming up with a disturbing, yet only possible, conclusion.

"You're… you're synthetic!"

Eve raised an eyebrow, her tone flat and befitting a being such as her. Leng could only imagine that she was smirking on the inside. "Ah, you ruined the surprise. Technically, you are correct, although not quite."

As she spoke, her hand pressed against Leng's chest. When he struggled to get up, the hand weighed down heavily, pressing him into the rooftop.

"So, how is it? Being defeated by an unarmed, young woman like me?" The synthetic spoke calmly, seemingly oblivious to his struggles as her false eyes bored into his.

Leng gritted his teeth, desperately trying to reach his Omni-Tool to activate an electrical surge to deactivate the robot-girl with.

Her eyes followed the movement of his hand, but she did nothing to stop him. Leng grinned victoriously as his activated the Electrical Overload function, which was essentially a portable EMP. An orange hologram flared around his wrist as a surge of blue sparks jumped towards the synthetic.

Leng, victorious, tried to pry the fake hand away from him until he heard a soft chuckle. Turning to look at the source, he found himself staring back at Eve's glowing eyes. This shouldn't be possible! The electrical shock had friend every other system he used it on, even the highest security computer, so why did it not work?

As the Omni-Tool expended its last bit of energy, Eve spoke calmly as if nothing had ever happened. "Now, do you understand who the weak one here is?"

Leng didn't reply as she lifted her head in the shuttle's direction. The engine had suddenly cut out, leaving it eerily silent. "I guess it is time to end this."

At that, Leng began to feel the palm on his chest press down, his armored chest plate cracking under the pressure. Her intentions suddenly dawned on him. He tried to push himself up or roll away, but it felt like he was buried under a massive slab of concrete.

"It was always your choice." The soft voice of the synthetic did nothing but intensify her actions. "It is the same choice you gave to those innocent people whom you and your cohorts buried down below: Struggle and die painfully, or stay still and die peacefully."

Of course Leng refused to die like this! His still functioning hand clawed furiously, pushing and punching at every part he could reach as his ribcage was slowly crushed. His all but crippled legs flailed, trying to kick her in the side as he ignored the pain of his broken bones. He'd have bitten her, too, if only he could've reached her. It all proved futile, though… Eve didn't even blink.

Leng could hear his ribcage begin to creak under the pressure and weight. He knew that synthetics were made of alloys and heavier than humans, but the amount of weight she forced on him was almost unbelievable for her small stature!

"Perhaps if you were a little bit stronger, your death may have been more 'honorable', forcing me to actually put up a fight." Her monotone voice reached his ears once more, but the pain from his ribcage fracturing and the difficulty he was having breathing prevented him from retorting. Instead, his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.

Eve narrowed her eyes before continuing, even her monotone failing to completely hide the venom dripping from her words. "On second thought, a warrior's death is too good for such scum who wished to kill hapless civilians for no particular reason!"

Beneath the broken armor, Leng's ribs snapped one by one, the fractured bones puncturing his lungs, severed arteries, as squeezed his beating heart between the crushing palm and his spine. Kai Leng gurgled out a mixture of blood and saliva, his nostrils filling with blood that he couldn't wipe away. His struggles grew weaker and weaker as time passed…

Finally, with the sound of something squishing, his body stopped moving, his eyes and mouth wide open, frozen in an expression of excruciating pain and horror. If one were to scan his insides, they'd find that every internal organ within his thoracic cavity were crushed to bits – just like how Eve confirmed he was dead.

Eve stood up and sighed at the sight of the corpse. She felt no remorse for disposing of trash like him, but instead felt empty at the loss of those she had bonded with – just like when her friends made the ultimate sacrifice long ago.

The Empress broke out of her depressing thoughts at the sound of the shuttle's door sliding open. Her daughter stepped out and walked towards her, expression downcast. Eve didn't need to ask the reason why, as the red stain on her gauntlet was displayed for the world to see.

Anchor didn't hide her sorrow herself, either. "Only one crew member survived, mother. Anchor disarmed him and tied him up with chains after Anchor knocked him unconscious."

Eve nodded in response, taking the girl into a tight embrace, uncaring of the red staining her white dress. Anchor mumbled quietly into the embrace. "Anchor avenged her friends, but Anchor doesn't feel happy at all…"

Eve gently ruffled her hair as she explained grimly. "Taking away a life is never easy, Anchor, but sometimes we have no choice. No one is perfect. Sometimes, it is both we and everyone we hold dear die, or they die."

Anchor lifted her head, looking into Eve's eyes. Sadness wouldn't begin to describe what she felt right now – if she had tear ducts, she'd be crying rivers by now.

But, Eve still had a message to convey and it must be done now; nipping the problem at the bud, so to speak.

"Look at me, Anchor," she said both gently and firmly. "No matter what, always respect the ability to take a life, for it could also protect those you hold dear, but never feel joy in taking it, for it will corrupt you." Eve nodded towards the corpse that laid a few feet away. "That is what sort of person you should become should you find happiness in slaughter."

Anchor stared at the unmoving corpse for a moment, recalling the conversation between the two before the battle. Turning back to nod at Eve, a new resolution shone in her eyes. "Anchor promises that Anchor will never be like him."

Eve smiled before pushing Anchor out of her embrace. "If anything, you should at least be happy that your friends who are still alive will not have to dirty their hands in order to survive what happened today."

At those words, the Empress took a step towards the rooftop's exit, turning to look at her daughter. "Come, let us head down to see our friends. We must post some complaints about the colonial management as well."

Anchor gave a small smile and joined her mother. The two exited the helipad, leaving the corpses of the Cerberus agents and their inert shuttle behind…

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**[1] It was a way to explain how your characters can survive getting ten stories high towers dropped on top, or Giant Flaming Meteors, or even Black Hole (!) in Elsword game. I borrowed some basic from RWBY aura. While Mass Effect it was implied that all your 'Hit Point' is actually Kinetic Barrier's ability to absorb shots, if you get hit in lethal area unprotected by armor when the Barrier failed then you die.**

**[2] Shogun Executioner… Google it…**

**[3] Eve's ability to synthesize and create materials actually implied in Eltype comics; you know - the one where she had to cook for the Elgang because housemaid of the inn they're staying got sick. And Eve decided to just turn all human waste into perfectly edible food for them and even brag about how this will solve food waste problem once and for all. (Unsurprisingly; no one ate dinner that night, after all even us still reluctant to drink 'drinking water' that produced from wastewater treatment plant have we not?)**

**[4] Kai Leng's passive ability; turn everyone near him into a moron. Face it! It's the only way to explain why he could get away so many times in Mass Effect 3.**

**[5] Since Normandy is the first Prototype, there's no way they'd have any more Stealth Ship around at this time.**

**[6] Kinetic Barrier cannot block melee attack. It's in the Official Codex.**

* * *

**I hope that I didn't make Kai Leng out of character here, since I never played Mass Effect 3 or reading side story books, only from wiki and watching let's play, especially that memorable scene where I saw Leng ditched his sword and beat Liara senseless barehanded while she forgot that she has a gun pointing at point blank where Kinetic Barrier won't protect Leng from the shots. Oh, and she's also a Biotic with experience killing dozens or even hundreds of mooks over the course of three games, but suddenly forgot that too.**

* * *

**Eve's fight against Kai Leng actually took inspiration from certain Evil Overlord who fancied himself a Black Knight while actually being a Skeletal Lich who also has a name that translated literally as [Flying Squirrel]. I know some readers know who and what story I am talking about. Though it'll be too much if Eve hug Leng considering their body size difference and how it'll break a lot of suspension of disbelief to get in such situation, so it changed to this.**

**Sorry for making you disappoint with Javik's confrontation, hope that Kai Leng make up for it.**

**And of course, change of Mass Effect canon will be a series of minor change that lead to bigger change in the long run - should the story get that far.**

**Review and constructive criticisms are always welcome. until next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**This Chapter editing has been completed thanks to Rosamanelle.**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Convince**

Shepard was sitting in his quarters in the Normandy, typing on his personal computer with a somber look on his face. He glanced at the clock at the corner of the screen that displayed a time of nearly midnight, but he didn't feel sleepy at all thanks to the events that had transpired under his watch.

He really shouldn't have let their initial success on Earth's Lunar get to his head, especially when the raid consisted of blowing up malfunctioning automated gun turrets and fighting combat drones, only to find out that, like some horror story, the core of the central VI – the 'brain' of the entire place – was stolen long ago, the drones they had fought having been activated by an automatic security protocol run by a failsafe program.

The situation was dealt with, but the mystery still remained: what happened to the VI core? Did the personnel in charge unplug it the last time they visited? It wasn't likely considering the damage the casing sustained, but then that begged the question of how the thief even got to the core.

He didn't delve into it much – after all, who would look a gift horse in the mouth? He was glad that Liara performed adequately when the team disabled those rogue drones, thus completing the objective. The investigation was handed over to the Alliance Marines after reporting that everything was clear, then they took off from the Sol System without rest. After all, they still had jobs to do.

Then things got worse.

First was the trail of Cerberus bases across the region of space under System Alliance jurisdiction, somehow avoiding the watchful eyes of patrol fleets for who-knows-how-long. Shepard and his team raided about half of them thanks to the help of Rear Admiral Kohaku and his information, yet it came with a price: While he was on the Normandy flying from planet to planet, the Admiral was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by Cerberus agents in the span of three days, his corpse left for Shepard to find as if mocking their efforts.

As Shepard was about to take the Admiral's body to the Arcturus Station for a proper burial, a message from their contact in Citadel came in, detailing the findings of Matriarch Benezia's involvement in a private research station on Noveria. So, he had to rush out once again to confront the Evil Matriarch, although Dr. T'soni wasn't too pleased with the idea of confronting her mother once more. But it was still clear that Benezia had to be questioned, and delaying their trip means that she might escape – a chance they couldn't take.

But, of course, they ran into the corrupted executive board of the Noveria Development Corporation, who denied them access to the research labs Benezia was supposedly in. This took another day of jumping through hoops to gain a pass there without the excessive use of bullets and explosives. Even if his SPECTRE status practically allowed him to do whatever he wanted, Shepard still didn't want to set a bad example.

The raid on the Peak 15 research facility turned out to be the first major brick wall in his quest to bring Saren and Matriarch Benezia to justice. The Matriarch's elite commando force was the first to greet them at the facility entrance, who were, if Shepard were being honest, were every bit as dangerous as the articles in the Codex made them out to be. Quick witted, powerful Biotics, crack shots… you named it. It took him, Kaidan, Ashley, Tali, Liara, Wrex, and Garrus nearly fifteen minuted to safely dislodge the ten-woman squad from the facility entrance! And he had yet to count the near half-dozen doses of Medi-gel needed to patch up his squad, either.

Granted, the combination of terrain that favored the defender and the natural disadvantage of a makeshift team with no formal teamwork training was working against him, but from Shepard's perspective, it was still the first real opposition that offered a good deal of resistance for their little team. That made him almost want to cut off the facility's supply lines and lay siege to Benezia until she and her goons starved, forcing them out to surrender while Tali and the tech teams tried to crack the security, just to minimize the risk to his team.

He was no coward, but considering the fact that Benezia had been running the facility for many years, he wouldn't be surprised if she littered every nook and cranny with traps that made a super villain's lair look like a nice sand castle made by children at the beach.

But the plan was never put into place, thanks to the experiment inside going horribly wrong. When a few scientists escaped the facility covered in blood, Shepard decided that it was now or never and stormed the place. The doors and corners were flooded with sentry guns, guard posts and even booby traps, but nothing was function – a given when one realized that the fleeing scientist escaped relatively unharmed.

Of course, once Shepard and his team made it inside, the thought of an easy mission simply went to hell.

Rachni, a species of insectoid aliens that nearly conquered the galaxy some millennia ago, a species that the Krogan drove to extinction… The Rachni, clearly not extinct, were rampaging inside the facility, slaughtering anyone they came across that wasn't a giant insect like them.

Though most of the Asari commandos were tired out and easily beaten, it barely kept up the team morale when faced with the rampaging Rachni.

The insectoid aliens could be killed, just like any other living being or synthetic, but the scary part was that history documented them to be extremely aggressive and volatile. Stories of Rachni troops diving over their brethren's fallen bodies wasn't exaggerated whatsoever. Dozens of rounds fired at high velocities barely damaged their hardened carapaces. Warp, Push, and any other Biotic power Kaidan and Liara could come up with combined with micro-grenades instantly fabricated by Omni-Tools barely kept them at bay.

Once the Rachni were defeated, Shepard had no time to celebrate their victory, because Benezia, ever wily, attacked them as soon as they cleared out the Rachni with her remaining commandos.

Shepard and his team prevailed in the end, but not before Benezia almost blew off Kaidan's head as he was locked in a Biotic standoff. Thanks to Remy's timely intervention in the form of ramming into his side, Kaidan kept his head and managed to mortally wound the Matriarch with some Biotic projectiles.

It was that wound that lent them to their victory, finally defeating the Asari Matriarch and her elite commando force. Yet, once more, all happy moods went down the drain as they recalled that said Matriarch was Liara's mother…

The conversation between the two during her mother's final moments was heartbreaking. No one wanted to see the young archeologist break down as her mother refused aid and passed away. Benezia died as a mother who regretted abandoning her offspring, yet the galaxy at large would always remember her as the Evil Matriarch who aided a rogue SPECTRE and an army of synthetics in their quest of spreading terror across the galaxy.

If anyone had any joyous feelings that particular moment, they soon evaporated as the group encountered the Rachni Queen in the deepest bowels of the facility. Shepard had to make the biggest gamble with the fate of galaxy as his wager: release the Queen or not? But, he couldn't just condemn the newly born queen to death for crimes she didn't commit, even if her ancestors were a Chaotic Evil hell-bent on conquering the galaxy.

Luckily she cooperated with them, telling them what Saren was after; the location of a long-lost Mass Relay that happened to be in his hands. Hopefully the Council could sent a fleet to blockade the thing – after all, one frigate against an entire Geth fleet is just stupid.

He could only hope that his decision to release the Queen into the wild wouldn't come back to bite him in the future, because the Turian Councilor sure as hell wouldn't forget this any time soon if his last conversation with the Citadel Council was any indication.

Sighing as his train of thought came to a halt, Shepard closed his personal computer and went to sleep, hoping for a dreamless night before they docked at Arcturus Station to file reports. He was ready to know what exactly Hackett had in store for him this time.

* * *

The Normandy's cargo door opened slowly, allowing Shepard to see the rather pristine docking bay of the de-facto capital of the System Alliance. Docking arms clamped onto the stealth frigate's wings, ramps extended, reaching the cargo bay where he stood. On the other side of the platform, half a dozen Alliance Marines lined themselves in two equal rows, creating a walkway for the four crew members. A handful of Marines rushed to take the coffin from the crew, allowing them to retreat back to the ship.

As the Marines carried the coffin away, another officer in a pristine Alliance uniform walked towards Shepard, urging the SPECTRE to follow him. Shepard turned to the white drone beside him – he habitually brought it everywhere with him when Tali wasn't studying it – and motioned for it to follow him silently. If anything, it could record the conversation and relay it to the crew if it was important, saving him a little time and energy, plus providing specific details he might forget.

Soon enough, Shepard found himself inside a lavish reception room within the Alliance Navy Office, a gentlemen in the navy blue uniform adorned with several gold chevrons on his shoulder – the mark of an Admiral – standing at the window, overseeing the military dock. It was as if his entrance had gone unnoticed.

It may look like so, but Shepard knew better.

Shortly, the elderly man turned towards him, steel grey eyes boring into him like he was staring into his soul. Shepard saluted, to which the old man put up his hand to stop him and sighed. "You're no longer under my command, Commander Shepard."

Lowering his hand, Shepard opted to nod respectfully to him instead. "Admiral Hackett, sir."

"At ease," Admiral Hackett said rather tiredly, foreshadowing his next words – if the glowing hologram that appeared around the Admiral's wrist wasn't enough. "Yet another good Alliance soldier sacrificed, all because of an incompetent and corrupt bureaucracy." He sighed again, his Omni-Tool shutting off as he dropped down onto a couch and looked up at Shepard expectantly.

Shepard nodded. "Rear Admiral Kohaku was a good man, sir. He cared about all of his men, something that all good leaders aspire to do."

"Yet it seems that the government may not learn anything from his demise." Hackett shook his head before motioning for Shepard to sit down, a waiter entering the room with two glasses of water for them. Hackett glanced at Remy, shrugging of its presence with disinterest.

Once the waiter left, the elderly Admiral resumed. "Now, let us drop this topic. I assure you, Shepard, Cerberus has a lot to answer for, which is partly why I have asked you to come here, even if you're busy chasing down a rogue SPECTRE."

Shepard blinked. "Another attack by Cerberus, sir?"

"Indeed," the Admiral nodded. "While you were on Noveria around two days ago, Cerberus sent one of their top agents to raid Eden Prime. We identified the agent sent as Kai Leng."

Shepard shot up from his seat in worry, after all, the man was on the 'Most Wanted Criminal' list in Alliance space for a reason – he was dangerous; even civilians weren't safe if they were in the way of his goal. "What's the situation there, sir?"

"At ease, Commander. The situation has been resolved." Hackett quickly calmed down Shepard sternly, but his tone made Shepard dread what was to come. "There were civilian casualties, though. Kai Leng and his four cohorts destroyed a part of the Sector 13 hospital, killing six men and four children."

Shepard slammed his hand on the table, the white drone next to his jumping in surprise. A programmed reaction, surely. "Dammit!" He cursed. "What is the military doing? I remember that they parked a fleet over there after Saren's attack. Is there a mole within the fleet or something?"

"There is no conclusive evidence of such," Hackett said, cutting him off. "But, it is probably how Cerberus caught wind of Eden Prime. There was an unforeseen development, and the fleet and Marines had to deal with it, leaving the colony unprotected."

Shepard noted the strange way Hackett talked about the military, even if he was trying to hide it. "Hold on, your said the 'fleet' and the 'Marines.' Did they not depart the planet together?"

"Only the fleet departed. The Marines are still there."

"Then why didn't the Marines come to the colonist's aid?" Shepard pressed on.

Hackett sighed. "They were protecting a Prothean ruin discovered four days ago. Cerberus was after the ruins, but seeing that it was protected, they tried to create a ruckus in the colony by kidnapping some children. The Intelligence branch suspects that they did this to create a hostage situation and draw the Marines away from the ruins. That's what the official reports say, but I beg to differ."

That piqued Shepard's interest. "What's your theory, sir?"

Hackett looked at him, straight-faced. "I think they were after civilians – two in particular – for whatever their mad scientists cooked up."

Since his time in the Academy, Shepard looked up to Hackett as many things, the voice of reason being one of them. Naturally, he voiced his thoughts aloud. "What makes you think that, sir?"

"Cerberus is no stranger to abducting children, particularly those who show potential to be Biotic users. But this is the first time they've tried something within System Alliance territory and not on the free people of Terminus." Hackett explained, sighing deeply. "Perhaps it's a sign that it's time to overhaul our Intelligence branch."

"That still doesn't explain why two children suddenly became their target, sir," Shepard pointed out, oblivious to the white drone's sudden attempt to make itself as scarce as possible.

Hackett glanced around, using the scanner on his Omni-Tool just to be sure that no one was listening in before he leaned forward, his voice low. "Keeping this from you will be futile, so I'll tell you: They were the ones who discovered the Prothean ruins I mentioned earlier, and from the reports I received, they somehow bypassed all the ruin's security while the colonial guards had to wait for Marines to bring in heavy equipment outside."

Shepard raised his eyebrows at the statement. "What do you mean, sir?"

Hackett stared at Shepard for a moment, before massaging his forehead and sighing. "Perhaps I should start from the beginning." He took a deep breath, then began. "There was a man who started this incident: Assistant scientist Manuel went insane after Saren's attack and was forced to recuperate in the main hospital. He escaped, kidnapped a young boy named Brian, and fled to the aforementioned Prothean ruin. With colonial guards hot on his tail, Manuel somehow activated the ruin's security systems and closed the gates, locking himself and he boy inside."

Shepard wanted to ask if Manuel was attempting to commit suicide by starvation, but dropped the matter as he recalled his brief conversation with the man. No one would be able to understand how that insane man thought.

Hackett, not noticing Shepard's inner thoughts, continued. "That boy, Brian, was one of the children that Kai Leng wanted to abduct, according to witness testimonies." He nodded when he saw Shepard blink in surprise. "Yes, Brian. There is nothing special about him, as it was the mad scientist who got him inside. The other child and her mother, however, are a different matter."

"They chased after Manuel, didn't they?"

The Admiral nodded. "The colonial guards asked them to help track down Manuel. The reports state that the mother and child are offspring of the early colonists that left the main settlement and that they have much experience living in the wild without the aid of technology."

Shepard narrowed his eyes, voicing his concerns. "How does that matter, sir? Even if they have excellent wilderness skills, it doesn't justify endangering civilians."

"They were desperate, and at that time, the Marines were held up on the fleet due to bureaucratic bullshit." Hackett's tone was laced with poorly-concealed venom. "The colonial guards were on their own, and it wasn't long after the… well, you were there when it happened."

Shepard shook his head, backing down reluctantly. Of course he knew that the old man was referring to Saren's attack on Eden Prime. The casualties suffered put a severe strain on manpower. There weren't many staff to spare, and the fleet doesn't just take orders from the colony – not unless a request was sent through the Alliance chain of command, by which it would be too late.

Hackett coughed, regaining Shepard's attention. "Anyway, they tracked Manuel down to the Prothean ruin. Then they used a strange technique that allowed them to - and I quote, _'phase through approximately three feet of solid metal and get inside.'_" The voice the Admiral used betrayed no emotion, showing that he was just as confused as Shepard. "It was what they found inside the ruins that had the fleet scrambling to get back to Arcturus Station while leaving the Marines to guard the ruins and archaeologists. I think Cerberus targeted the family for their ability to phase through walls instead of for a hostage plan."

Upon that note, Shepard summed up his displeasure. "So, they were the bait to take Cerberus's interest while the System Alliance secured a valuable Prothean artifact, sir?"

"Precisely," the Admiral grumbled; it was clear he wasn't happy with what happened either. "The higher ups think that the colonial guards were hallucinating or panicking when they said the two phased through solid gates. We'd like to investigate further, but after Saren's attack on what was supposed to be a top-secret mission combined with what was found at the ruins, _they_ were paranoid enough to simply say, 'let rumors fly and draw Cerberus out to those two while we smuggle out the most important thing.'" He let out a huff. "Now you know why Cerberus wanted them."

Indeed, Shepard, being a former N7 Special Force, could see how useful an ability would be should it get into the hands of Cerberus and they managed to reproduce it. No bank vault nor bunker would be safe when they could ignore all obstacles and go straight for what they wanted, including the artifacts recently discovered. Cerberus would only let it go until they could fully utilize their 'phasing' ability…

…Only if such an ability existed, of course.

When thinking back to the human experiments he discovered in Cerberus labs he raided a few days ago, Shepard was inclined to think that such rumors would definitely catch the interest of Cerberus – to them, it was like a dream come true, no matter how absurd. Even if the rumors were false, Cerberus would still target them due to their ability to get into the Prothean ruins unaided.

This led him to the most important question. "So. What's so important that civilians must be sacrified to Cerberus?"

Admiral Hackett gave Shepard a hard look. "I'm to show you exactly what we found; it's why I called you here."

The Admiral stood up, motioning for Shepard to do the same before leaving the room, Shepard trailing behind him.

Suddenly, Shepard realized that they weren't going to some safe vault, but to the army hospital which had been quarantined for some reason – he'd been stationed here before, which explained his familiarity with the base. He didn't need to guess why the military presence increased as they went deeper in, but why was a precious artifact stored in the hospital of all places?

Not wanting to make wild guesses and waste time, Shepard opted to ask the Admiral directly. "Why did they drop the relic off in the military hospital, sir?"

Hackett, who was showing a couple of Marines his identity card, remained silent before the duo entered another corridor, his reply coming with a slight smirk – a rare sight on the Admiral. "I never said that we recovered a relic from the ruins, Commander."

Shepard's eyes widened in realization as the Admiral stopped in front of a metal door that was guarded by four fully armed N7 Special Force members. Once the N7 members checked them, they saluted to the Admiral and entered the key code to open the door.

As Shepard entered the simple patient room with the Admiral and a couple of N7 Marines, his eyes were immediately drawn to the figure sitting on the hospital bed. Although the figure had a vaguely humanoid shape, the rest of his or her – or any combination of the two – features didn't resemble anything he'd ever seen before. The being's attire, however, looked like some sort of feudal-age armor despite the fact that it looked like it was made by someone with a much better grasp of metallurgy that those from the feudal era.

The alien's four yellow eyes, unlike those of Batarians, glanced up to look at the newcomers as soon as the door closed behind them. The N7 flanked the Admiral and Shepard, weapons at the ready but fingers not at the triggers. The SPECTRE blinked in surprise at the alien, struggling for words, while Hackett remained silent, staring calmly at the alien.

A brief staring contest passed before the alien rose to his feet, speaking in perfect English. His voice was surprisingly deep and echoed around the room. "So, what do you humans want this time? Have your doctors and your primitive medical knowledge not answered all of your questions already?"

Shepard blinked and looked at Hackett, wondering if some sort of torture was involved to make the alien say such things. Then he looked back at the alien before immediately dismissing such thoughts, as no signs of such things were present.

About to speak, Shepard was cut off by Hackett, as if the Admiral knew what the SPECTRE was about to ask. "He's been like this since the Marines found him at the ruins. He's either calling us 'primitive' and insulting us, or completely silent. I've had to stop my men from harming him a couple of times since he's come under my care. This is already an improvement."

Hackett then hummed thoughtfully, signalling that he wasn't quite done yet. "And before you ask, yes, the lab results say that he really is a Prothean – or, at the very least, and unknown alien species locked up in the Prothean ruins."

"Are you humans really that dense?" The Prothean glared at Hackett, fangs bared as if he was truly offended by what the old man said. "Can't you see the truth that's presented before your very eyes? Are your scientists not telling you what they've seen?"

Hackett crossed his arms, locking gazes with the alien unyieldingly. "With all due respect, it'll take more than finding you in some ruins to convince me. For all we know, considering the fact that your spoken language is the same as us, you're some unknown alien species who's observed humans on Eden Prime before getting stuck underground. And the fact that you hurt the scientists who examined you does little to help the situation."

Hackett's words were sound… but arose some questions.

"What do you mean that he injured our scientists, Admiral?" Shepard turned to ask, his tone doing little to hide the fact that he demanded an answer.

Hackett closed his eyes, mulling over his words before speaking. "It was nothing serious. The things that those eggheads say never make any sense to me." Upon seeing Shepard arch his eyebrows, he sighed and continued. "One lost consciousness upon touching him, another started vomiting and claiming that he was having a horrible nightmare. Everyone here has given him a wide berth since."

"It was better to let my memory doing the talking, human. It just seems that your kind is incapable of receiving it."

Now that the Prothean spoke, it jolted Shepard's memories of a specific event on Eden Prime that lead to their objective being destroyed. Now he knew why Hackett brought him here. Quite the gamble, if Shepard had anything to say about it.

After all, he wouldn't have put it past Anderson to tell the old man about his strange vision of the Prothean demise. It might be the old man's way of repaying debts for a particular assignment Shepard did for him.

Shepard stepped forward, ignoring the angry glares of the N7 directed towards the alien. He stood next to the alien now, crossing his arms as he spoke. "There _is _a way to prove his words. If he can tell me what the hell that Prothean Beacon did to my head, then it should be enough proof."

The alien perked up, eyes blinking rapidly before focusing on the man's face. "You interacted with one of our working Beacons?"

"More like it exploded in my face and kept bothering me with headaches and strange visions." Shepard couldn't help the jab. He began to wonder why he confined his crew to the Normandy when someone down here would have been a great help, both to him and to her personal dilemma of having to gun down her own mother as a mercy kill.

Then again, there were System Alliance protocols. Since Arcturus Station was such a major military base and the fact that half of his ground team was alien – Turian C-Sec, pilgrimage Quarian, Asari archaeologist (and daughter of a literal recently-deceased Evil Matriarch), you name it… Even if he was sure that Hackett wouldn't mind their company so long as they didn't enter restricted areas, their superiors sure as hell wouldn't allow them into this place out of sheer paranoia.

The alien wasn't interested in his verbal jab, however, but instead the Beacon. The alien took a step towards Shepard, raising a three-digit hand to the SPECTRE's forehead. "Let me see it, then."

The moment the alien's fingers touched his forehead, Shepard was assaulted by a myriad of visions, all of them not pleasant. One moment he was staring at a gigantic, squid-like metal walker that was easily as big as a Frigate, more of the giant metal squids pouring down from the sky, then in the next he saw some sort of bipedal aliens rushing towards a gate, Prothean aliens standing guard and mowing down wave upon wave of alien. A guard was struck with a Biotic sphere of some sort, the others slowly backing away and shutting the gate, dragging their fallen comrade with them.

All the while, he heard the familiar voice of the alien in his ear, although he couldn't tell what was being said.

_"…How many… le…"_

_"Half of…"_

_"Perimeter breached! Sir, we…"_

And as suddenly as the visions stared, they were gone…

Shepard and the alien parted. The SPECTRE fell to his knees, clutching his head in pain. He barely registered Hackett commanding the N7 to stand down, his footsteps echoing as he rushed over to Shepard.

"Are you alright, Commander?"

Slowly, his headache subsided. When he glanced up, he saw that the alien wasn't faring any better, sitting on the bed and massaging his head. Shepard guessed that he wasn't the only one who found the entire experience to be painful, then.

Shepard fumbled as he stood up, muttering lowly. "I am… alright. Mostly." The he shook his head, attempting to clear the dizziness.

However, as he stood up fully, the Admiral pushed him to sit down on a nearby couch instead, motioning for one of the N7 to help the alien fully into the bed.

As the alien was recovering from the ordeal, Shepard began to retell what he was. "When I touched him, I saw… His memories, I guess. They were fighting the same squid-esque starships that we saw on Eden Prime, but more numerous, and some sort of insect-like beings."

"An indoctrinated Prothean…" The alien's voice was barely above a whisper. "…Brainwashed, twisted to the Reaper's will and fought us, their former brethren. I see that you've founght one as well, the Asari clad in black with quite the enviable figure. The mother of your Asari member."

Shepard's eyes widened. "That's Benezia…" His voice hid nothing, clearly surprised by the development. "How did you know about her?"

The alien responded rather arrogantly. "Primitives," but was soon followed by an explanation. "All living things leave traces of their experiences in their chemistry. We Prothean have mastered how to read it and made it a way of communication between life forms, but it seems to be beyond your grasp at the moment…

"But enough of the explanations." The Prothean's eyes lit up, livid with anger as he glared at both Hackett and Shepard. "You saw our warning! You saw the Reaper itself! Why has humanity not yet prepared for war?!"

Shepard took a step back at the sudden outburst, before composing himself and staring at the Prothean evenly. "All I saw was a vision that couldn't be interpreted. A rogue special agent is leading an army of synthetics in an attempt to bring back the so-called Reapers – which, I might add, the synthetics seem to worship as a God – and that's keeping us busy right now. Sorry if we're skeptical about it."

Beside Shepard, Hackett wore the same blank look. "We can't dispatch our fleet on a whim, especially since everything we have seen up until now have been the actions of a rogue special agent operating in an area that we can't assert our authority in. We're not even on very good terms with the rest of the galactic community at this point."

Seeing their unyielding expressions, the Prothean slowly backed down. "Those synthetics, alongside the agent that you face, are brainwashed by the Reaper. They are just pawns, like those you saw in my memories. They're trying to summon more Reapers to destroy all organic civilizations, like what they did to my cycle."

"You keep talking about Reapers, but we haven't met any new species lately. You're the most recent one we've seen in the past thirty years."

The Prothean seemed impatient and, upon realizing that this is not the time for games, replied with a straight answer. "That 'Dreadnaught' you saw leaving your colony is the Reaper itself! The Reapers are a race of sentient starships, not some pathetic flashlight robot or the abominations – the Husks – that they turned your people into!"

What they'd just been told was absurd, but the only possible explanation with no other logical explanations.

"So the Reapers are actually a race of sentient starships?" Shepard asked. "I saw more of them in the vision, your memories, but where is the rest of its kind? Why is only one ship operating at the moment?"

Then Shepard's eyes widened as he recalled the fact that even now, the Milky Way galaxy wasn't fully explored. Only around 1% of space was charted, and only the space close to the opened Mass Relay. Who was to say that the Reapers weren't hiding somewhere in the dark void of space?

"Admiral…" Shepard shot a worried glance at the old man. "I think we have a massive problem here."

Hackett nodded, his face serious. "Indeed. But there's nothing we can do; any rash movements will create unnecessary fighting between potential allies. Besides, we lack evidence."

The Prothean was decidedly not amused by the discussion. "All of your advancements have come from looking at our Beacons and technology. This warning has come from the same source."

"It still doesn't prove anything," Hackett cut the Prothean off before elaborating. "That's not that I don't believe you. I do, and Shepard here does as well, but it will take more than this to convince the higher ups to prepare for war."

Shepard decided to input his thoughts. "But, considering that they're searching for something called the 'Conduit' to summon the Reapers and the fact that you said the Reapers are sentient starships with the purpose of wiping out all organic civilizations, that means that the rest of the Reapers are currently inactive. For the moment, at least."

Hackett looked at Shepard, his expression dead serious. "Then you have to stop Saren and that ship before he can activate the Conduit, whatever it is, first. Perhaps we can find more evidence to support you claim in the meantime."

Shepard turned to look at the Prothean, who shook his head and spoke, as if he knew exactly what the SPECTRE was about to ask. "I'm only a soldier, not a scientist or leader. I do not know what the Conduit is, only that the vision imprinted upon the Beacon confirms the myth that was circulating during the war against the Reapers in our cycle." [1]

"What myth?"

The Prothean craned his neck, before turning away from both Shepard and Hackett. He gazed at the ceiling, lost in the past. "During the war in our cycle, we were losing to the Reapers on all fronts. World after world burned and my people were enslaved and slaughtered. I myself was born after the Citadel fell to those abomination and the galactic genocide was underway."

Shepard eyed Hackett worriedly, but chose not to interrupt the Prothean and instead listened to the rest of the story. "We abandoned planets to regroup, one after another, hoping that if we regrouped we could fight those monsters and stop their rampage… but alas, we hoped in vain…"

The Prothean sighed. "Perhaps that's why the rumors of Illos started, as a beacon of hope. The rumors said that our brethren, somewhere out there, were crafting a superweapon that would bring down the Reapers for good… but we never lived long enough to see it."

The alien turned toward Shepard. "In the end, myself and several other warriors were chosen to go into stasis, to slumber underground away from the Reaper's prying eyes until the cycle was complete and the Reapers went back to wherever they came from. We would then emerge and rebuild our civilization, preparing you and the other for the upcoming cycle of destruction."

The Prothean clenched his fists, voice laden with anger. "But there was a traitor amongst our ranks, a brainwashed slave of the Reapers who betrayed us…" His shoulders slumped slightly, as if he carried the weight of the world. "I'm all that's left for you to find…"

Though Shepard felt for the Prothean, he wasn't in the mood to comfort him. Preventing such a tragedy from repeating itself was more important. "So, the Prothean scientists on this secret world – 'Illos' – found something that triggered the Reaper's genocide. The Conduit, I presume?"

"It is the best theory I can come up with, given the evidence." Hackett replied in place of the Prothean, who only nodded in agreement.

Shepard looked at the Prothean expectantly, who replied with a sigh. "I know not the location of Illos, and from what you gleaned from the Beacon, it didn't impart you with such knowledge, either."

Shepard slumped at the thought of the dilemma they faced. "Even if we keep following Saren and the Reaper ship he boarded and they lead us to that place, we'd still be too late."

"There's still hope," The Prothean cut in sharply. "All our facilities have VIs overseeing their operations. Unlike the Beacons, they are programmed to recognize indoctrinates slaves of the Reapers. They won't part any knowledge with them, nor give them access to the Conduit, wherever it is." The he turned to Shepard. "But, if you're fighting with the Reapers and have the imprint of our Beacon within you, it'll interact with you. You can use this knowledge to stop them!"

Shepard's eyes met the Prothean's for what felt like a minute before the SPECTRE stood up, determination filling his eyes. "Then our course is clear. I've got to go now, Admiral."

Turning on his heel, Shepard saluted Hackett before heading for the door with Remy in tow. The alien stopped him quickly, calling out his name. "Let me join you; I must avenge my people."

Hackett shook his head, his voice tired. "No can do, I'm afraid. If the Reapers see you on the news, they may hasten their plans instead of progressing normally, ignorant that we know that they are coming."

Now it was Shepard's turn to speak. "Besides, if we're going to face an enemy that your kind lost to and not repeat such a defeat, we need all the information we can get – enemy strategies, capabilities, the like. That'll give everyone a higher chance of winning and stopping this galactic genocide than if we were to send you to the front."

The Prothean let out a huff of frustration, before nodding determinedly. "I understand. I can't help you much with our technology, unfortunately, as I'm just a soldier. But I promise to do everything I can do to make sure that the Reapers regret making the Prothean their enemy!"

Hackett offered a hand to the alien, but quickly withdrew it upon remembering the Prothean's peculiar 'ability.' "That'll be greatly appreciated."

Seeing that the issue of first contact was resolved to an extent, Shepard decided to leave for the Normandy, only to be halted for the second time.

"Commander. I am known as Javik; when the Reapers do eventually return, you may count on me. But for now, I wish to rest. Hopefully we can prepare your cycle and make the defeat of the Reapers possible."

Knowing that the meeting was over, Shepard left them with a few simple parting words. "Glad to have you aboard, Javik. Hopefully my mission will buy us as much precious time to prepare as possible, so we may have a future when the time comes."

In turn, Javik left him with a warning. "Do not try to study the Reaper technology, no matter how tempting. They could use such an opportunity to indoctrinate you or one of your men as their slaves."

Taking his advice, Shepard left the hospital. While there were still mysteries to be solved, he now knew what was at stake and resolved that he'd do anything he could to stop it. He knew that he and Hackett were alone in this quest; there wouldn't be any government aid with just a testimony from Javik. Confirming that he was Prothean would take too much time and only complicate matters.

Still, he wondered how in the world he was going to explain this to his crew on the Normanydy…

The first human SPECTRE didn't know, however, that this secret was already leaked, thanks to his silent companion who observed both meetings, sending the data back to its master via a communication channel not known to this dimension.

* * *

"Mother…"

"Hmm. What is it, Anchor?"

Eve, who was standing at the center of several blue rings that were processing the data for her main project, _Find a Way to Save My Friends_, glanced at her daughter who was also generating her own blue rings with a questioning look. On a small bunk bed pushed against the wall, Oberon and Ophelia lay 'sleeping', so to speak. No one particularly cared if anyone stumbled upon them, thanks to the fact that the view of Eden Prime was slowly disappearing from the window, only to be replaced by deep space. That and the fact that the door to their cabin was sealed tightly, preventing air from escaping.

Yes. They were currently aboard a cargo freighter heading out of Eden Prime, thanks to governor Hagus' requesting them to go and aid his friend who was stationed on another colony.

When one thought about it, Eve and Anchor didn't do anything wrong considering that they acted on the grounds of self-defense, especially when the autopsies of Kai Leng and his cohorts showed that no weapons were used in their deaths. Although Kai Leng was crushed to death rather violently, all charges against Eve were dropped once the man was identified as a dangerous criminal who murdered many more than just those in the hospital.

No one questioned how she crushed his ribs without Bioctic traces, but considering that Hagus was the one to quickly arrange a way out of Eden Prime for them, the old man probably had a hand in the investigation, but that was beside the point.

The old man specifically did this for Eve and her 'family' not because he wanted to get rid of troublesome people in his neighborhood, but because, in his own words, he wanted them to get away from such painful memories – especially Anchor, who had to kill to defend herself at such a tender age. He hoped that by having them go to someplace else, it'd help the child cope with what she'd done.

Of course, Anchor was already coping fairly well thanks to the talk Eve had with her after the fight, but despite Hagus' obliviousness to the fact, she had already acknowledged that such a move would be better for the wellbeing of her child. This was an opinion that battle-hardened Oberon and Ophelia both agreed with, mostly due to their own experiences beforehand.

Back to the present, the petite synthetic bobbed her head slightly and continued her question. "Anchor still doesn't understand the concept of 'stealing life energy.' Can Mother elaborate?"

Eve smiled. While running her own calculations, she diverted some of her attention to her daughter. "Are you familiar with the theory of the conservation of energy?" Seeing Anchor nod, Eve continued. "When one's life is extinguished – in other words, dead – all of that life energy must go somewhere or is transformed, like how the heat from a bonfire is dispersed over its surroundings. Of course, if someone knows how to manipulate life energy is around, they can redirect that life energy elsewhere or gather it for use."

The blue rings around them continued to revolve as the daughter contemplated the answer, before she finally broke the silence. "And the El Stone?"

"It is a crystallized form of life energy," Eve replied. "That is what we could glean from it, anyway. How does it form, why has it formed, no one has any answers." Here she chuckled. "No answers, except for the claims that the gods bestowed it upon Elrios, of course."

Eve paused, before continuing. "Emotions and soul affect the properties of the life energy radiating from any given life form. People who aren't aware of this energy still feel it instinctively – like fearing a hostile presence, for example. The intensity of emotion can also affect the life energy in another medium in a meaningful way, like the desire to protect and ease another's pain amplifying the healing efficiency of medical abilities, or how Biotic users must make certain gestures. What we use to heal organic life is also an application of such energy, as Nasod technology alone wouldn't be nearly as effective as it is."

Anchor felt her head beginning to spin at such an explanation, reflected by the rather adorable tilt of her head. "It really is complicated, Mother… So Anchor is already able to use it, but can't measure it?"

Eve reached over to pat the girl's head. "It is normal. Mathematics is the basis of many theories and explanations, no matter what civilization. The same cannot be said about life energy, as many of its properties cannot be measure by math alone. But, one day, you will be able to, just not in the same way as using math.

Anchor nodded, stretching both arms in the air like a kitten stretched its legs once Eve withdrew her hand. "Anchor will study harder…"

Eve smiled at the girl in approval. "That's the spirit; do not give up, my child."

Before they could continue, a klaxon flared up as the captain's voice rang through speakers. _"–We're approaching the Mass Relay, all hands prepare for transit. I repeat, we're approachin…–"_

The Nasod Empress and her daughter didn't move, their holographic rings still spinning lazily around them, signifying that they were still busy with their own thoughts. But, if someone were to scan the places they stood, they'd notice an increase in gravitational force, rooting them down to the spot much more firmly than usual.

Slowly, a shutter closed on the window, blocking Eve's view of space. Soon, the ship shuddered as the ancient artifact sent its power outward, slinging the freighter thousands of light years in a blink. Once the shuddering stopped, the shutter on their window opened, revealing an entirely different system in a different part of the vast galaxy.

_'Quite a peculiar way of travelling,' _The Empress mused inwardly, returning to her work.

As the ship sailed through the void towards their destination, Eve and Anchor causally conversed with one another regarding many subjects, ranging from life force, the universe, and many other random things, all while partially focusing on their individual studies.

But while the ship approached another human colony, Eve received a signal from her other drone. A frown appeared on the Empress's face, deepening by the second as she listened to Remy's report on Shepard and the System Alliance's recent findings regarding the Prothean. Once the report concluded, Eve let out a massive sigh, a palm resting over her forehead.

It felt like misfortune kept following her since she decided to explore this galaxy… Then again, considering the nature of this threat, it was hardly her fault.

Anchor's worried voice broke her out of her thoughts, questioning why she looked so troubled. Eve responded with a sad smile at the child who was born in this very galaxy, hesitating for only a brief moment before waking Oberon and Ophelia to give them all a summary of what she learned.

Silence reigned over the cabin. Even the holographic rings flickered and died out, before Anchor spoke up, her voice tinged with uncertainty. "What should we do, Mother?"

Eve shook her head slightly. "Right now? Nothing, except have faith that Shepard and his group will stop the summoning in time. Our intervention will only hinder his progress."

Her voice came out with pained acceptance that there was nothing they could do to intervene with the SPECTRE's mission, although she could tell with one look that Anchor was still unsure.

So Eve explained quietly. "You know what the galactic community thinks of our kind. What makes you think that the government of the galaxy will listen to us?"

Anchor lowered her face solemnly, knowing what Eve said was true. Some random bystanders might be willing to listen, but the official government would most likely not listen to them at all.

"Diving in head-first to stop these Reapers is not advised," Oberon said, his arms crossed. "From what this Javik has said, the Reapers have been destroying galactic civilizations for a long, long time. Invading a planet is not like invading a city or small village where individual talents will matter. This is a galactic struggle; if none of the species unite, they will all die."

"We cannot be everywhere at once, and if what Javik said is true about their mind controlling capabilities, we have no way of protecting everyone by ourselves. The galactic community must unite and fight on their own if they want to survive." This time it was Ophelia who added in her own analysis.

Seeing the distraught look on Anchor's face, Eve shot her an encouraging smile. "At the moment, we are in no position to influence the people of the galaxy, but that does not mean that we should sit back and do nothing."

Anchor blinked at her mother. "What do you think we should do, Mother?"

Eve's answer was surprisingly simple. "Do what Mister Hagus has entrusted us to do to the best of our ability. Who knows, maybe we can find opportunities to secretly contribute? Perhaps we can create plans to defeat the oncoming apocalypse? Nothing is perfect; nothing is without weakness. Not even billion-year old sentient starships."

Anchor pondered this, but was interrupted by Eve ruffling her hair gently. "Focus on what we can do first, Anchor. Apathy will do no good to anyone."

Red eyes widened, before the girl mumbled quietly. "Anchor thought that Mother would take Anchor to the Chronos Library, leaving this dimension to avoid the apocalypse."

Eve arched an eyebrow. "Giving up means that you have already lost. That much is true, but it is equally foolish to jump in without a contingency plan." Here she paused. "Given the sheer scope of things to come, our best contingency can only preserve our own lives."

This time, the petite synthetic nodded. "Anchor understands. We can't help others if we're dead."

Eve nodded towards the scene of darkness filled with countless dots of light beyond the starship's window. "One death is insignificant and meaningless in comparison to the countless lives in this vast galaxy. A couple of sacrifices won't put an end to this catastrophe, like what my friends did on Elrios." Then she frowned slightly. "But, even if it somehow could, I highly discourage you from doing so."

Her voice did little to hide the bitterness behind her words, which Anchor, Oberon, and Ophelia understood all too well. So instead, Anchor nodded. "Anchor promises that she will never throw her life away."

Eve smiled slightly. "As long as one person is still alive, there is still hope. Never forget that."

Anchor nodded enthusiastically when another announcement from the captain blared through the speakers, telling them to prepare for atmospheric re-entry.

Soon enough, the ship landed in the spaceport of the human colony known as Horizon. From what Eve could see through the window of the cabin, she'd say that it was only a control tower off to the side and a communication antenna in the center of a walled-in area. But, considering what Hagus had told her, it was to be expected. [2]

They waited in the cabin while the other passengers and cargo began unloaded, not wanting to struggle with the crowded exits. They waited for most of the passengers to leave before finally getting off of the ship.

As Eve walked down the ramp, she was greeted by a teenage girl in a dark purple dress, the first words out of her mouth sarcastic. "You sure take your time for doctors supposedly sent to help contain the epidemic here. I thought you'd be in quite the rush…"

The entourage glanced at the woman, her right eye hidden behind the bangs of her black, bob-cut hair. A slightly playful smile crept along her face as her dark-brown eyes darted between the intimidating Oberon and Ophelia, glanced at Anchor's frilly headband and silver head gear, before finally settling on the white-haired Nasod Empress. The teen smirked. "Then again, considering your getup, I'd say that you went a little overboard with the beautifying in there."

As the woman, whose appearance matched the description Hagus gave them as the person sent to retrieve them, started giggling at her own joke, Eve took the time to take in her surroundings. She spotted the other passengers slowly passing through the colony's security checks and grabbing their belongings at the edge of the landing site. Beyond the walls that marked the boundaries of the spaceport lay cylindrical, prefabricated shelters of various sizes and designations, from spaceport authorities to restrooms. The sky was clear of smog or clouds, a mountain range sitting on the horizon. But, unlike Eden Prime, whose landscapes were green like early spring, here it was all slightly reddish-brown, like the late summer or early autumn season.

_'The environments that can support life is largely similar, no matter where I go,' _Eve mused. _'The again, this is humanity we are speaking about. I wonder what a planet that supports dextro-amino acid life forms would look like…'_

"Hello, are you still there?"

Eve snapped her attention back to the young woman, smiling slightly. "My apologies. This is the first time I have ever seen this world – Horizon, was it? I have gotten slightly carried away." Then, her smile turning less genuine, Eve quipped back just as sarcastically as their initial greeting. "Also, making an epidemic out of the common flu in a single village is quite excessive, is it not?"

The woman who came to retrieve them pouted, both hands on her hips. "I didn't gawk like you, even when I came here a week ago."

Eve arched an eyebrow. "Are you not a native to this planet?"

The woman shook her head, explaining enthusiastically. "Nope, I come from Illium, actually. It's the end of the college semester there, and they assigned students to do some volunteer work in the meantime. I chose to come here because it's my dream to do this kind of work in the future." [3]

"I see."

"Oh, my name is Oriana Lawson. Pleased to meet you, Eve," [4] the girl introduced herself, offering a hand to shake. Eve took it, mostly to make a friendly gesture.

"Likewise, Miss Lawson."

Oriana smiled, before turning to the youngest in the group. "So, you're Anchor. Mr. Hagus talks about you a lot." As Oriana took a step closer, Anchor instinctively latched onto Oberon's hand, to which the woman responded by stopping quickly. "Whoa, whoa, I'm not going to bite you! I was just going to say that it's very impressive that you're an acting nurse at your age. I can't do that, nor could any of my friends."

Anchor nodded timidly, to which Oriana responded by slowly reaching out to touch the silver gear on her head. After a moment or two, Oriana moved on to ruffle Anchor's messily bobbed hair. "You're a lot like me, little one. Same hair style, and color too! Only your hair is a little stiff. Do you not use shampoo while washing your head…?"

Oriana trailed off, twitching slightly as she caught Anchor's pleading look, before shrugging it off and continuing to play with the girl's hair, much to Anchor's dismay.

The little synthetic mumbled under her breath as she tried to free herself, a signal for Oriana to stop. She giggle, removing her hand from Anchor's head before turning to speak Eve. "Sorry, she's just too cute. I hope you don't mind."

Eve nodded with a small smile. "We should speak later, Miss Oriana," then her smile turned mischievous. "I don't think wasting time here will do any good for your 'epidemic,' now will it?"

Oriana seemed to realize that they've attracted quite a bit of attention from the spaceport workers, most likely wondering why they haven't moved yet, and led them towards the security check. All of them passed without much hassle. They then exited the spaceport, walking between the buildings. Colonists were busy with work wherever they looked. Unlike Eden Prime, where there was an underlying tension that couldn't be hidden, Horizon seemed much more peaceful and happy, even if one village had the flu. Then again, the flu wasn't as serious as a terrorist attack.

After looking around for a bit, Oberon approached Oriana. "Pardon me, Lady Oriana, but Mister Hagus told us that the village in which you are staying in is a long way from the main spaceport, however I do not see any vehicle. How did you get here, and how do we get to where you came from?"

The woman grinned sheepishly, glancing at a nearby shelter that had been modified into a garage of some sort. Inside was a 10-seat ATV, a couple of its drive sprockets broken. A mechanic was using his Omni-Tool to arc-weld the pieces together, smoke rising from the exposed engine.

It took Eve just a second to guess what happened. She stared at Oriana questioningly.

"Well, the village chief told me to use it, seeing that I know how to work it and there're no driving licenses here. But driving a real ATV is harder than what I read in the manual on the Extranet…"

So, Eve and her family – alongside the woman supposed to pick them up – were stuck at the spaceport until evening…

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**[1] Javik admits it himself in Mass Effect 3 that he – and other Prothean - didn't know where Illos was.**

**[2] I'm not sure how to describe Horizon here, sorry.**

**[3] Oriana is 19 in Mass Effect 2, thus she should still in collage.**

**[4] I'm not sure if she sticks to that surname or not, but considering that we have historical 'Henry Lawson' here, and billion or trillion of population in 2183, I'm quite sure that number of people who have the same name yet unrelated is quite common by then.**

**I hope I got Oriana personality right though since she has no line in ME2, while in ME3 it's a fight for survival thus not time for any joyous mood. I just took implication that she's the polar opposite of Mirada and roll with it.**

* * *

**Sorry for grammar mistakes that will inevitably show up though. Hopefully the detail in the story didn't derail from official Codex that much.**

**As usual; Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome. Until next time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**This Chapter has yet to be Beta, But I tried as much as I could, hopefully my grammar may improved a little.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Coincidence**

Shepard sighed at the sight of the mysterious place which he had visited twice since the Eden Prime debacle; The Chronos Library still looks ominous and mysterious as it always been whenever he appeared here in his dream.

'_And I thought that I already had it dealt with three days ago after speaking to Javik…'_

As he trudged down the corridor toward the center, he pondered over what he knows from his past encounters with the synthetic resided in this place before finally test it by clapping…

Sure enough, his hands went right through each other as if they weren't there…

Astral Projection was what that enigmatic Eve explained to him of this phenomenon - Shepard remembered as much – but there still many things left unanswered, for example; why he still appeared here since the mystery of Prothean vision has been solved just hours ago?

One theory which popped up in his mind was that these two things were unrelated, and when even Javik didn't mention anything about this so-called '_Astral Projection' _or whatever these strange dreams were about at all means that the funky Beacon or Prothean occultism was not to blame for his current predicament. But yet again, nothing conclusive…

Shepard shook his head; well, if he's going to stuck here for the duration of his sleep in Real-World, might as well learn as much as he could from the resident robot girl, no matter how nonsense it might seem, maybe there'll be some clue to stop the Reapers' galactic genocide from happening. Or if not, he may learned yet another strange belief or properties of organic being which she uncovered for him – like this Astral Projection for example.

He descends down the main hall while keeping an eye out for the enigmatic synthetic. Shepard was sure that she'd noticed his intrusion by now given past experiences and he absolutely not want to get a drop on by her again, his pride as a spec ops has been wounded twice already - once by Eve and once by her robot maid – no need for the third wound least people think that he never learn from the past mistakes…

…Even if he's the only one who knows about what happened in these dreams, it still embarrassing…

Footsteps echoed throughout the area as Shepard's musing cut short, he looked around the circular hallway for cover out of instinct, to which he decided to kneel down near one of the closest pillar to hide. Once secured under the shadow, his eyes fell upon the hallway - and in a surprise - found the source of that footstep slowly approaching from the edge of his vision…

Instead of the Robot maid Ophelia, or owner - the white-haired synthetic Eve, Shepard found himself facing a man – or synthetic which created to looks like an adult human male almost a head taller than himself; his short-spiky white hair, white synthetic ears and golden mask covering his eyes were the most prominent features of this synthetic's head, and like the other two _'adult-like'_ synthetic he met during last couple of visits – his dress was pristine white and gold - which is a cross between long coat and butler suit along with white armored skirt around his waist. Strange diamond-shaped blue gem adorned his chest and both ends of his sleeves. Black, armored boots clattered with every step he took as he approached Shepard at steady pace, as if knowing that Shepard couldn't run or hide anywhere.

Indeed, the white-clad synthetic know exactly where Shepard was hiding, he rounded the corner of a pillar and stare down at the SPECTRE before greeting him with a polite bow. "Welcome back, Commander John Shepard, milady expected that you'd turn up here sooner or later again thus she assigned me to look after you whenever you showed up in her absence."

Shepard got up on his feet and returns the stare, unsure of how to proceed until the synthetic spoke again "We never met before, Commander Shepard, but I'm known as Ferdinand, the third guardian and retainer of Lady Eve."

At this, Ferdinand held out his hand expectedly, to which Shepard smiled wryly before taking it – or rather, pretend to take it since he's intangible at the moment "Nice to meet you Ferdinand, and please just call me Shepard, or just Commander, whatever you find suitable."

As they parted hands, the white-clad synthetic nodded slightly as acknowledgement to Shepard's request and then he motioned toward the hallway "Considering you're here in spirit, not in flesh, I must apologize that I couldn't fetch any tea for you Commander."

Shepard didn't know whether Ferdinand was being sarcastic or not, but that's not important and so he proceed with something he deemed more constructive "Your hospitality is appreciated, but I'm wonder if you can answer some of my questions?"

The taller synthetic didn't spoke, but from the way he nodded Shepard assumed that he's telling him to go ahead and so he does "What can you tell me about the Reapers?"

That blunt question made Ferdinand's lip curled up – frowning, before he gave answer "We know about the Reapers the same time that you made known about them."

Shepard stopped walking, causing the synthetic to stop and turned to see Shepard crossing his arms with annoyed look "What's that supposed to mean?"

Inwardly Shepard wanted to know if all the synthetic resides in this place are all like this – acting vague and not making any sense unless you take their words at face value?

Ferdinand shook his head and elaborates "Milady let you borrowed her drone – Remy, and through Remy, she learned about Reapers from your experience."

Shepard narrowed his eyes as paranoid entered his mind "Are you trying to find blackmail materials by using Remy?"

Another head shaking "We have no use for such thing, and I can confidently say that milady considered you a friend. She'll never betray her friends."

"That's… quite a stretch…" Shepard commented, still wondering if there's synthetic that capable of value other species as something other than their usefulness.

Ferdinand seems to notice his doubt as he smiled slightly and gestured around the hallway and toward the central chamber "The reason milady enclosed herself from the outside world was for her friends – to find a… way to return them to the world."

Shepard arched his ethereal eyebrows at that before he probes further "All organics die eventually, no one can live forever like your kinds." And then he adds "…it's not possible to revive dead people as well, unlike machine that can be repair when broke."

That slight smile on the masked synthetic vanished almost immediately, replaced by a deep frown making Shepard realized that what he spoke made him sounded like a synthetic haters and such words could've made any people mad. But now that the word was out, Shepard could do nothing but berated himself for letting the frustration of fighting Saren's synthetic army get the better of his usually level head and controlled manner.

Both of them stared at each other for minutes before Ferdinand broke contact first "I'm sorry that I phrased the word incorrectly."

Shepard clearly didn't expect that "What do you mean?"

Ferdinand then explained in calm, polite manner as if he takes no offence from Shepard's word earlier "Milady's friends are not dead yet, but they're – in your word would be 'In Coma' I guess. That's why she relocated herself to this place – Chronos Library, where time flow relatively slowly compared to our home realm, so that she has time to find a way to revive them, until you showed up here."

Though Shepard doubted that whatever condition inflicted upon Eve's organic friends would be a simple Coma, he has more pressing matter that needs answer "home realm? Time flow differently? Are you perhaps referred to different dimension?"

"Yes"

'_Now it starts getting ridiculous'_ thought Shepard, but then again, the 'Reapers' that the Prothean told him can be considered that too, had not because the way Prothean Beacon usually works convinced him that it's no mere dream. So how could he say confidently that _'Dimension Travelling'_ didn't exist?

Shaking his head again, Shepard tried to return to the urgent topic at hands "So, what do you think about the Reapers?"

Ferdinand tilted his head slightly, frown still on his face when he answered the question with another question "That depends on whether you'll take 'speculation' as 'know' or not…"

Shepard frowned and crossed his arms again "Please stop playing around. I don't know how long I can stay here before I wake up again, if you have anything to say please say it."

"As I've said that we gain knowledge about Reapers from observing you through Remy. So all we can offer now is our analysis of the data you acquired." Ferdinand repeated his explanation.

Shepard lowered his hand as he pondered for a bit, then he rationalized that since the Reapers are race of synthetic, then asking being of the same kind may provide some insight to how they works even with limited knowledge about them "Tell me then."

Ferdinand stood still for a moment before starting "First thing is that the Prothean's warning about Reapers technology has its merit; after all you cannot completely eradicate entire species from the whole galaxy if they know not where others are hiding among trillion of planets, no?"

Indeed, Shepard could see the reason to that, not that what happened to Benezia wasn't clear enough already that the Reapers know mind control tricks or two. And besides, turning enemies against each other will ease the number of ground troops the Reapers needed to transport for any planetary attack as well.

"Second…" Ferdinand continues as he raises two fingers on his right hand "This 'cycle' theory of your Asari archeologist was there to make sure that each spacefaring species will not advance enough to challenge them, whether the Reapers are incapable of developing new technology or not, we are not sure."

The SPECTRE could see that coming too.

"Thirdly…" Ferdinand now uses a serious tone – as much serious as synthetic voice would allow from what Shepard heard at least "Consider they can genocide the whole galaxy every 50,000 years, their armada must be vast… combined with the cycle theory of limiting organic species' technological achievements, mean that unless the whole galaxy united together, you won't stand a chance of defeating them at all."

Shepard looked down, as if the weight of the whole galaxy now placed unto his shoulders, which wasn't far from truth; after all, the entire galaxy has been divided for a long time, the status quo never change for thousands of years before human even enter the galactic community. And speaking of human, they weren't exactly on good term with others as well, what with Cerberus running rampant or other races scared of humanity's ambition and fast progress. Convincing them to work with humanity to oppose the Reapers will be a hard work until said Reapers fleet already kicking down their front door, but by then it'll be too late.

As if knowing what Shepard was thinking, Ferdinand spoke up again "A word of advice, Commander; build up trust with those closest to you on your ship and try to stop Saren and this Reaper ship first. So you have more time to prepare."

Indeed, Shepard could agree with that one; after all, the galaxy as of now is woefully unprepared thanks to centuries of peace, and although tension between human and other species keep System Alliance keen and sharp, it's nowhere near the level to beat the Reapers by itself, considering the latter has successfully purged a galaxy-spanning empire in the past. They need time to build up; fighting spirit could only get so far after all.

But then, Ferdinand dropped a bombshell on his mind "And, for my personal opinion, I doubt that keeping your companions in the dark will do you any good at this point."

It took Shepard a moment to realize that the synthetic was referring to how he had yet to tell the rest of Normandy crews the full story of Hackett's meeting in Arcturus Station, about Javik and his explanation to what really happened to Prothean civilization 50,000 years ago.

It's not that Hackett requested him to keep it secret nor did he wanted to be secretive with his crews whom he viewed as companions, but it was because of his own doubt; both of their reactions, and the worst of it all; the consequences should this reach Citadel Council's ears.

From the attitude toward humanity, Shepard wouldn't be surprised _if they'd conveniently ignore intangible proof of Reapers' existence while went straight to punish humanity for the fact that they harbored living Prothean without sharing that knowledge with them_, and considering Udina's stance, this might as well sparks a war, which lead to everything fall into place for the Reapers in that galaxy divided, weaken by internal strife, become easy picking when they finally arrived.

As if knowing his internal dilemma, Ferdinand offered his advice "I cannot speak for your companions, but I'd say to you the same word as what milady told you when you two first met; trust has to start somewhere…"

"…If no one gives any, how can one receive such trust…" Shepard finished the quote, before shot the taller synthetic a thankful smile "Thanks, I guess… and sorry about being rude to you earlier."

Ferdinand nodded "I understand. I believe it was the stress and burden of knowing what's at the stake should you fail to stop Saren and the Reapers that clouded your judgment. You need not to apologize to me. Instead, thanks milady Eve who gave me these advices to tell you should you showed up."

The first human SPECTRE didn't ponder on that statement much, after seeing all the impossibility that enigmatic female synthetic did and explained to him. Not to mention that the fading of his own body was far more important.

"It seems your time in Astral Projection state is at its end, Commander…" Ferdinand's voice vibrating into Shepard's consciousness as the scene darkens "…I bid you good luck on your mission on milady's behalf."

And thus, Shepard drifted into another dreamless sleep…

* * *

Once Shepard woke up next morning when the Normandy is preparing in the Citadel Docking area for a sortie toward colony world of Feros , he quickly called for meeting of all officers aboard the ship along with ground team including all Aliens in said team, and he told them of what transpired during their stay at Arcturus Station.

When he finished with the depart warning of the living Prothean – Javik, Liara T'soni – unsurprisingly – be the first one who grimaced of the predicament…

"So the only reason I cannot have an interview with the living Prothean was politic?" she sighed "should've see that coming…"

"I doubt that those interviews will do you any good considering what's coming should we fail to stop Saren…" Garrus opined "…and just like Shepard said, adding this right now would only create bickering between the Council and System Alliance, and we won't getting anywhere close to stop him…" he added with a rather bitter tone, no doubt thinking about all the obstructions in his path when trying for years to expose the rogue SPECTRE as a traitor he is.

Kaidan tried to lighten the mood a little by comment "True, I don't think that archeological research paper will make the Reapers reconsidering their genocide campaign on us."

The Gunnery Chief William - who's always holding serious and professionalism attitude – scowled at Kaidan, but Wrex is different as he shot the man his Krogan version of grin and said "The boy Kaidan is right; if they're just machine created with purpose of periodically purging organic life, let Saren loose them is death sentence, we have to stop him first before thinking about revealing Prothean's existence to those Councils."

Wrex let out a laugh when he saw Ashley's surprise face "You think I'm wouldn't care if they're summon or not because I just want to fight for the damn credit?" then he chuckled sarcastically "We Krogan may be a warrior, but a true warrior know to not get drag into a fight he cannot win. And Reapers definitely fit those criteria – for now."

Shepard agreed with Wrex on that part, even if the System Alliance already started preparing as they speaks, they still not prepared enough if the Reapers invade now, not to mention the whole galaxy…

Then a million credits question come from Tali'Zorah as she turned to face Shepard "But why you're telling us this? This should be top secret information. I'll be honest that if the Admiralty Board of the Migrant Fleet gets a hold on living Prothean like you, they'd keep it secret from Council and everyone else without a second thought."

Shepard couldn't fault Tali's logic – though given the nature of Migrant Fleet as Space Nomad made it easy to do that unlike established nation of the System Alliance.

In response, he made serious face and replies "I believe that since we all risking their lives to stop the coming galaxy-wide apocalypse, it better that everyone being on the same page instead of leaving you in the dark as that'll hinder our mission…"

Seeing Ashely's face he quickly continues "…And I have faith in all of you to not reveal this fact until the right moment; it's not enough that the political fallout may hamper our mission, but if the Reapers got wind of this information, it might very well hasten their plan leading to them invading too early for anyone to prepare…" He paused a little before emphasizing the next fact "Remember; Prothean was a galaxy-spanning Empire who left marks all over everyone's home systems, and they've been wiped out by these 'Machine', no race can hope to stand a chance against them individually; we have to buy time to prepared and united. I hope everyone understands."

He glanced at Ashley in particular due to knowing of her opinion regarding Alien, hoping that the fact will sink in that they're in this together, or they all die when Reapers returns to begin their genocidal campaign against the living once more. And the Gunnery Chief seems to get the message as she nodded stiffly at him, as well as everyone around the table…

Then Pressly saluted him and brought up another question "So you want us to keep shut our mouth about the Prothean who's in the Alliance's custody Sir?"

Shepard nodded at Normandy's Navigation Officer "Precisely, Pressly, I hope that after Saren was dealt with we can reveal that without causing too much problems in case Saren wasn't the only agent fallen to their mind-control tricks…"

He paused a little then continues with serious face "Speaking of which; the 'Indoctrination technology' employed by the Reapers is another disturbing factor that made me decided it'd be the best if all of you knowing this secret, since the only evidence of its existence were the vision in my head and the living Prothean who confirmed its uses against their people 50,000 years ago. I do not want any of you to fall victim to it."

All heads nodded in unison, before Shepard turned to Tali'Zorah and issue first order "In light of recent revelations; Tali, please make sure all Geth parts and data storage you salvaged from the missions are safe, if you're not certain or have no way to discern it then dispose of them, melt it into lump of metal if you must."

Knowing the severity of the threat that any of _her_ people could involuntarily become agents of the machine without anyone know the wiser should the pieces that's capable of indoctrinating organic being slipped into the Migrant Fleet; Tali could only concurred, but she also has one point to adds as she pointed at another pseudo-member who's floating between her and Shepard "About that drone; Remy…"

"I know…" Shepard grumbled irritably before turning to said white decorated drone to make everyone know where those irritation came from "…but to be frank; Javik said that from their own researches; all Reapers' weaponry, and other technology were derived, or based upon Element Zero as well, while Remy's is based on unknown technology from what you learned from it right?"

Tali nodded and explains "Yes, though none of any reading I could gleamed from this drone make sense with our current technology, but just from the 'structural field' and 'hover technology' alone suggested that their technology never based on Element Zero at all."

Shepard let out a sigh "But still, keeps an eye on it. From what we gathered from Javik, coupled with what Benezia told us on her death throe, this 'indoctrination' have a cue in form of energy field of some sort, or transmitting signal of variable wavelength that stimulate the organic's brain function, so try to find if the drone – or any other pieces you gathered - were emitting such thing would be a good starting point. But do not – under any circumstances - delve on replicating it, I'll not risk any more people being brainwashed into Reapers' slaves."

"Please, Commander Shepard, anyone with two braincell to rub together should know that…" Tali stated as a matter of fact "…Since this Reapers existed far longer than even the Prothean, I don't think that they won't have any countermeasure in place in case some organic tried their luck on mind control technology would you?" Then she adds with conviction in her voice "And I had my moral; it was wrong to subjugate other's free will, this technology could do far more harm than good no matter how you look at it. It's not worth it."

Shepard nodded "I'm glad that you understand." Then he decided to get on another matter "Now that's out of the way, soon we'll go to planet Feros…"

And thus the briefing was under way for another lead toward Saren…

* * *

Three days later, on the other side of the galaxy in the remote colony named Horizon which situated in the area called 'Terminus'; Eve sighed at the sight before her; there, on the makeshift operating table was another preadolescent child that's so fat beyond healthy with his arms and legs tied down by steel grip of Ophelia and Oberon as he tried to no avail to escape his predicament.

"Let me go! I said I'm fine *cough*… *cough*…! Mom, dad, please... Achoo! Tell her I'm fi… cough!"

The child coughed several times, sickly yellow-green mucus spew forth from his nostrils onto everything in the line of fire with each cough – which is Oberon who was holding his arms down, yet the masked retainer didn't budge at the disgusting liquid spraying on his person at all. While the boy's nose turned red indicating his condition which contrasts to what he claimed to be.

And for the reason for his fright was certain white cylindrical object with pointed needle in Eve's hand, to which her eyes observes carefully to not let any air bubble in it least it risk causing harm to the child, but her action seems to not bode well with him as he struggling harder.

"Can you stop already? Dudley is fine and he knows it!"

And screeches from his parents didn't help either…

Eve turned to address his mother, her face show nothing but seriousness which made Dudley's mother squirmed and avert her gaze before the Empress explained annoyingly "I've said this for the past three days and I'll say it again; what your son's suffering is - Not - a normal flu…" she emphasis the word 'Not' "…It's an allergic reaction that could be life-threatening if left unchecked and not address to. But what your son allergic to, we still haven't figured out, and actually we have to quell his fever first."

The Nasod Empress edged close to the operating table, and in split second which her retainers hold the fat boy still, she gently plunged the syringe down on the boy's shoulder injecting the colorless liquid while ignoring the yelp from the boy. Once the last drop of the medicine forced into the boy, she calmly pulled the syringe out before disposing it in the hazardous bin.

"There, it's just that and we're done, not hurt at all isn't it?" She spoke while her retainers let the boy free and reunite with his mother. "But it'll take about half hour for medicine to take effect, so until then, please rest a bit."

Not a single word were exchanged as the mother - whose figure looks nothing like the boy glared at the Empress one last time before they left the small room.

Once the automatic door hissed closed, with Oberon and Ophelia busy cleaning themselves at the wash basin at the back of the small clinic room; Eve plopped down on the provided work desk which has computer screen opened and begin typing down reports to submit to the colonial authority. Her golden eyes glanced back and forth across the screen as letters and words continue to appear at rapid pace matching her hands movement on holo-keyboard.

"This doesn't look good at all…" Eve muttered as the screen keeps scrolling down and texts keep appearing "…more allergic patients appeared, not flu..."

True enough, since she came to this village outside the main settlement of Horizon along with her family to take the job of healthcare service on the behalf of Hagus from Eden Prime, the situation has turned for the worse because this's not like what they described in the briefing at all.

'_Flu…'_ Eve snorted at that word, quenching the thirst to strangle the incompetent idiot on Horizon that wrote such misleading request; seemingly the colonists couldn't distinguish allergic reaction from a common flu at all if the reaction of most patients were any indication.

Still, she finds it hard to blame their incompetency despite living in Space Age; because even with her long lifespan in land which people of this galaxy would dismissed as superstition nonsense, Eve never came across a disease like this before, and even Anchor's vast database she carried over from Lunar Base did nothing to solve this dilemma either.

The reason was that the symptoms was contradicting its nature; it was contagious like normal disease, yet not cause by any harmful microorganism as no tools at her and every other colonial doctors' disposal able to detect any of those invaders in patient's body at all. And all symptoms were clearly pointing at allergic reaction to something, but noting could point out what caused it, something which gave everyone a headache to this day.

…Adding inherent problem of colony being in Terminus area of the galaxy in the mix and it wasn't surprising why…

Although Horizon has been established for more than 16 years and most of infrastructure already in place thanks to influx of people who fed up with System Alliance over the course of its short life, it still far cry from developed world thanks partly to regulation in place to preserves the native ecology and partly from the constant attacks from pirates, the latter which the colonists could do nothing about but hide inside bomb shelters installed on every settlement.

Unfortunately for those in medical line of work, they couldn't abandon clinics or medical facilities when slavers attacked while they're in the middle of operations. And some slavers don't care who they abduct to be slaves as long as they're in working condition. Which is why the colonists always short on number of skilled medical staffs and have to rely on volunteers from other developed planets when a widespread epidemic occurred from times to times; not everyone wanted to take such risky job for longer than need after all.

Thankfully, since this strange epidemic started, there's no pirate attack on the colony yet, which is a blessing consider that they still have yet to find the source of the problem, thus gathering colonists in enclosed space like bomb shelter better avoided at all cost.

Brushing those problems aside; Eve was having a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she's missing something so obvious – it feels like her instinct telling her that she experienced encountering with similar phenomenon before. Yet when she recalls all her millennia of experience and memory, she still couldn't find it.

'_Unless all the sick colonists descended from the same family, to be allergic to the same substance is too much of a coincidence.'_ Eve thought _'not to mention Oriana and some other volunteers – who came from different colonies – also contacted it as well. That was too much of a stretch.'_

"Milady…" Oberon's voice at her back snapped Eve thought back to present. She turned to looks at him who's staring at her, though she couldn't see his face behind the mask, she could practically hear his concern in that single word, and it warmed her heart that they still serves her loyally after all this time.

"I'm fine, Oberon…" She spoke up before her trusted servant ever utter any more word out. "…just a bit stressed. This symptom is spreading among the colonists it seems…"

"Milady, you shouldn't concern yourself too much about them…" Ophelia replied while approaching her and standing by Oberon's side, her face lacked of expression while stating a fact that her charge seems to ignored "After all, this's not our home realm, and they're about to face the end. Even if by some miracle Shepard could stop them, it's only stalling for time. I advise you retrieve Remy and return to Chronos Library, closing all connections to this realm forever..."

Ophelia's words may sound cold and heartless just like how sentient organic being loved to imagine synthetic to be, however Eve know better that wasn't the case and thus didn't reprimand her for suggesting such thing. After all, they're currently struggling to find a solution to a single world - their home, and just like Eve told Anchor the other day; single individual - no matter how powerful - couldn't change the outcome of battle of such scale.

…and yet, she cannot give up finding a way to influence the civilization of this galaxy to stand a better chance for multiple reasons…

Seeing that her mistress were silent and not sharing her thought with their connection, and the older servant didn't try to stop her, the robotic maid pressed further hoping to change Eve's mind about lingering in this realm "Your safety is a priority Milady, as you once said yourself; you cannot accomplish anything if you're dead. Please, even if you'll punish me afterward, leave before the danger come to pass, we already seen what this realm has to offer after all."

"I understand your concern, Ophelia…" Eve spoke at last after contemplating her retainer's concern, two pairs of glowing golden orbs stared into each other "I know my current limitation, and both you and I know as well that we could depart this realm anytime we want to. To stay and risk our life in a fight we cannot wins never occur to me. You should already know that."

Indeed, Ophelia still remember; those countless time during crisis on Elrios where her mistress must convinced others – especially certain redhead swordsman – that they have to retreat or evacuate as the situation developed beyond salvageable despite doing so means sacrificing some people – mostly soldiers, but sometime civilians as well, so the majority could return to fights or stop the bigger disaster later.

But then Eve let out a sigh before she continues with steel and conviction in her voice "But since we're trying to make this galaxy a better place for people in it, perhaps giving them a better odd against the coming apocalypse along the way; I'd like to put as much efforts into it as I could so that when it's time for us to leave; me and Anchor can looked back to our days travelling this realm and be contented no matter the outcome of their struggle."

Eve then turned back to stare at the monitor with sad look on her face "Still, no matter the outcome, many people are going to die and we can do nothing to prevent it with our current capabilities… I feel that this's going to be biggest regret for both me and Anchor…"

"If anything; I'd say that both of you were fortunate enough already…" Oberon who watched the exchange stoically finally spoke up "If we didn't stop here, we may still pursue our goal blindly, not taking some time off to wind down or discover Anchor like this."

"True..." Eve concurred with her retainer "We've learned much, even if most of them irreverent… from a certain point of view that is. Speaking of which; where's Anchor now?"

Her question directed to no one but herself, she activated her Omni-Tool and make a 'phone call' toward Anchor in the earnest.

Of course, Eve could communicate with Anchor using their joint Nasod links, but since doing so may raise suspicion, she opted for a normal mean of this galaxy instead.

Soon enough, a message replied back, Eve read it aloud for her retainers to hear "She went to the village stockpile with Oriana to check if they could get more medical supplies for treating allergy. She should be back in half an hour…"

It was then that her stoic butler asks "Milady, did you tell Anchor that you consider taking her back to Elrios even if her wish was to help this realm?"

The Empress's eyes glanced toward the window, looking at the glowing orange sunset marking the coming end of working hour at the horizon before giving answer "She already promised me, Oberon, but just as I said; we've to try our absolute best until the last moment so we won't have any regret after we left."

Oberon and Ophelia bowed in acknowledgement of their mistress's verdict, the maid also spoke up "I apologize for being forceful earlier, milady."

Eve turned back to smiled sincerely at the two "Don't' be, we're family, and it's natural for family should look after each other."

"I'm unworthy of being…"

The Empress cut Ophelia off with a wave of her hand "Please, we've been through this millennia before…" she shook her head with amused smile on her face "…after all we've been through…"

"If you say so, milady…"

* * *

"Anchor, was that Eve?"

The petite synthetic glanced upward at the teen brunette who's standing alongside her, unconcern of the looks other nearby civilians of the village giving them before replies "Yes, Mother Eve asked when Anchor and Miss Oriana will be back home."

With those words, the Omni-Tool on her wrist flickered out as they resumed their walk toward their shelter – which was quite far away for a walk, but both didn't mind much despite the little girl having a basket as large as her back fill to the brim with load of supplies they sent to get.

Oriana watched Anchor carrying the entire load with worried look, while inwardly cursing the disease that managed to worm its way into her - which is why she was wearing a breathing mask like this while running an errand.

As for why Oriana didn't rest back at her shelter was because her pride as a volunteer prevent her from sending little girl out on an errand in her stead alone. Not to mention what the colonists would think of the volunteers as a whole if they saw this little girl do all the work while other so-called 'volunteers' busy dealing with their own fever.

Well, in Oriana's case, aside from coughs, occasional sour throat and small fever, there's not much that prevent her from doing her job, that's a plus unlike other volunteers who decided to stay in bed as they felt their strength sapped.

…her fever never once deteriorated to the point of being bedridden, it always been that way as far as Oriana can remember…

"Miss Oriana, you're making a scary face."

"Huh…?" Was all the taller girl could get out before she noticed the frown marring her own face via touching; Oriana tried to ignore the mild headache and fever that constantly plaguing her for the last 24 hours, but it seem the stresses from both work and fever are now catching up to her.

And then Anchor asked her with a pledging look "Miss Oriana, please promise Anchor to take a rest after this. It won't good if you're too sick to do anything."

Oriana nodded with a rather absent-minded look, not that she's intend to break the promise, but because she felt like there's something that doesn't quite right with Anchor, or her family for that matter, and that feeling intensified a bit more when she noticed – just now - that they didn't contact the 'mysterious disease' at all despite never seen wearing any breathing masks when they're in public or treating other patients for that matter.

But saying that they are suspects was illogical considering they just arrived a few days ago, while the disease already spread almost a month before that. Suspecting them for having antidote was out of the question as well since they didn't carry anything along at all aside from few personal belonging. So far Oriana chalked up 'Eve family' as having ridiculous high immunity to disease or lacks of allergy problem with the nature of this colony.

The Brunette's thought brought to an abrupt halt the moment she found herself collided into an object – object that suddenly yelped in surprise while two of them falling on their backside.

"Miss Oriana! Are you all right?"

At Anchor's word, Oriana suppressed the groan as she tried to stand up, but she froze up the moment her gaze met with a cold, blue and angry glare from the one whom she ran into.

The man whose appearance looks like a businessman – no, millionaire - in his forty with cleanly shaved blue hair and expensive-looking suit stood up first, towering over Oriana - who's still on the ground, and Anchor - who knelt down on one knee next to the brunette to check for her injuries, his mouth opened wide under the transparent breathing mask - which seems to be mandatory for citizen of Horizon as of late, preparing to lashing out at the one who crashed into him.

But suddenly, his angry gaze turned into that of surprise as his eyes roamed over Oriana's body – not of lustful desire, but something else that Oriana couldn't quite place it…

…and that made her feel nervous to the level she never felt before…

Anchor also anxious too, but for a different reason; and that being the two fully armed men covered from head to toe in silver armor marching to the man's side while glaring at them as if expecting the man – who's obviously their employer – to order them to attack her and Oriana for earlier accident any moment. [1]

It wasn't that Anchor was being pessimistic, it just that – what human and her mother called 'gut instinct' that made her feel that this's a dangerous situation even if she doesn't have the full picture to know exactly why yet. Not to mention the man Oriana ran into clearly had a lot of influence or wealth, or both to tap upon, combined with them being on the frontier world far away from System Alliance's authority, this couldn't mean a good thing most of the time.

And so the petite synthetic decided on the best course of action and apologize "Anchor sorry sir, we got careless. Are you all right Mister?"

That word seem to shake the man out of whatever he's thinking and turn to address Anchor with scrutinize look on his face.

"No, I'm fine…" he said with rather smooth voice which has a slight air of arrogance in it, but his icy blue eyes which keep stealing glance at Oriana clearly show that his interest was elsewhere even when he's talking to Anchor "…why a little girl like you prancing around the street without breathing mask, exposing yourself like this?"

Anchor replies honestly while also pointing at basket full of things on her back "Anchor and Oriana come to get medical supplies for the volunteer clinic. They do not anticipate that the 'disease' here is allergic reaction…"

Her explanation died in her throat as she realized the man didn't listen to her at all as he continues muttering something for himself "So, you're here after all…"

"Excuse me? Have we met before?"

The man blinked at Oriana before coughing and nodded "Indeed, it's a very, very long time…" he whispered, most likely to himself again "...my legacy…"

While Oriana and Anchor still confused what the man meant by that, the masked armed men spoke up "Sir, our job here is done and it's getting late, we should head back to headquarter before nightfall."

The man sighed while looked at the taller of the two brunettes longingly as if didn't want to leave her out here by herself, but he then shrugged and headed back with his men toward large truck equipped with strange dish on rooftop parking at the center of village square, and on said dish was a strange symbol they never seen before – like a brand of corporation of some sort. Once all of them get inside, the truck closed its rooftop dish took off toward the dirt road and out of the village in the sunset, leaving the two girls behind.

Anchor and Oriana watched the mysterious truck drove away with their mind puzzled over what they heard, until Anchor snapped out of it in a moment later and remind them of task they're doing "Miss Oriana, it's getting late, we should get back now."

"Right, oh, yes… of course!"

The older teen from another colony brushed the unsettling thought aside as she got up and resume walking with little girl jogging along carrying the load…

But in case of Anchor, she had foreboding feeling while her red eyes glanced in the direction which the truck disappeared into the countryside…

* * *

That night, once the shift was over, Eve, her retainers and latest daughter gathered in a small prefabricated shelter, located just behind the makeshift clinics, provided by the colonists for volunteer doctors coming from other colonies to help with their little 'flu problem' for their rest and also discussion of the events which transpired during the day. Eve, Oberon, Ophelia and Anchor all gathered around a small table in the center of their room, most of them going over what they've found in the last few days, brainstorming in case someone missing some details that may help solving this case.

Unfortunately, nothing came up that may point them in the right direction. Even though Nasod Crafter mixed with Eve's developed Energy manipulation – specifically Life energy - could potentially heal all types of wounds and broken bones, but disease caused by microorganism is out of their expertise unless they knew exactly what microorganism must be removed to cure it.

After all, if they target the wrong microorganism or worse – important organ tissue, then the consequence could easily fatal to the patient. And even then, organism continuously evolved and never the same. It was precisely these reasons why despite the potency of healing magic of Elrios, diseases and illness still be part of the life there.

Once the 'flu' discussion couldn't advance any further, they shifted to a different topic; which is normally about society, life, tale of the past, mostly between Anchor and Eve thanks to their vast knowledge – Eve from both memories and experience, while Anchor from those databank. But Oberon and Ophelia also joined in, mostly inquiring insight on some topic they discovered scouring Extranet on the vacant computer provided in their room.

No one worried about not getting any sleep despite the conversation took them well into the night; as a synthetic they need less rest than organic being. They still needed to rest from time to time to 'maintenance check' but it still few and far between compare to sleeping anyway.

Tonight there're other topics to discuss apart from all these, as Anchor stood up from her seat with her hands held in front toward the table, Nasod's signature blue holographic rings revolving around her body while holographic image of an object along with sheets of numbers and calculations in Elriosian language appeared while she present the theory regarding the mechanic behind Nasod Sonic Gun – a weapon which Eve had the blueprint but never actually build or try it due to 'The Great War' ended before she considered other options. [2]

Eve suppressed the urge to chuckle while silently listening to the little girl's explanation and theory via their Nasod link. After all, she couldn't help but imagine human and other organic's face when they saw this preadolescent-looking girl presenting a project in manner that wouldn't be out of place in university – if she'd keep that nervous look and untimely pause to a minimum of course.

She had to give credit to her daughter to come up with such idea though…

Once the presentation finished, Anchor terminated the holographic image depicting the schematic of her modification to Sonic Gun. Ruby red eyes looked at her mother expectedly, waiting for comments and opinions about it.

Eve took a sip from teacup, then smiled at her daughter and spoke up "It's indeed possible to destroy cells or any undesirable microorganisms with a mix of Harmonic Oscillation combined with our energy manipulation ability…"

The Empress paused a little which cause the little girl asks with dread in her voice "but it has a problem is it? Mother…"

Eve nodded and elaborates "Unfortunately, even with our ability, the resonance effect cannot be focused or contained completely; it'll disperse throughout the rest of target's body, though it may not amplifying to the point that body of any living thing will breakdown, but side effects are guarantee and unpredictable. It's like trading one illness for another."

Anchor contemplated it for a moment before nodding sadly. Eve who saw it couldn't help but trying to cheer her up a bit by pointing out another peaceful application which the restored Nasod Empire currently using.

"Still, it could be useful you know, most obvious one is breaking down rocks and processing material in mining, since mass reclamation and crafting like our Nasod technology still out of reach for people in this dimension, no?" Eve paused a bit then adds carefully "Also, in some case, causing a ripple of fluid in organic being might be able to stabilize them. But as said before; the cases where this method is plausible are very rare and hard to get it right even with our processing power."

The little synthetic brighten a little bit, even though the only usefulness for her and Nasod – who has better alternative - will be only as weapon, its peaceful application for this galaxy still has merit.

'_But considering about the coming apocalypse, it'll be more useful as weapon still…'_ Anchor thought.

Eve saw through what Anchor was thinking and decided to moved up and pat the girl's head "It's just the same as everything Anchor; two opposite sides, it all depend on what purpose you utilize it. Even something like a walking stick can be used to club people to death no?"

Anchor nodded, she knows that her mother was right, though doesn't make her upset goes away - not completely - she still find comfort in knowing that the knowledge still have its usefulness outside of warfare and hurting people.

Speaking of upsetting people, Anchor tells Eve about the confrontation with weird gentleman on the way back along with his bodyguard and strange truck with strange symbol on the rooftop dish.

Once she finished, Oberon was the first one to ask for qualification of the symbol she saw and the look of the man, before he turned toward computer and bring up a certain file from Extranet.

Seeing the man's face displaying on computer screen, Anchor's eyes widen, there're no mistaking it, and she confidently tell everyone "That's the man Anchor saw."

Suddenly, Oberon's hand went to his chin in thought, much to the surprise of Empress and others, especially the Empress – who stopped patting Anchor and now returned to her seat – didn't hesitated to ask "What's wrong Oberon? Are they of criminal organization like that Cerberus we encountered back at Eden Prime?"

Her retainer shook his head while denying her speculation "No, milady, far from it, he's a rather rich and successful businessman from the human side, his name is…" he paused a bit then spoke in surprise "**Henry Lawson**?!"

"That made it all the more strange…" Ophelia commented, her bright yellow eyes rolled upward with her hand crossed over her chest imitating thoughtful look "…why such a notorious millionaire come to a backwater colony like Horizon in person? From what I observed during the last few day this doesn't seem to be a good place to start new business doesn't it?"

Eve couldn't resist but deadpan her own retainer "You seem to forget that you got one certain VIP loitering around backwater colony here too."

Ophelia shrugged at her mistress' snide, while Eve looked on the computer screen in thought "Still, your opinion has merit Ophelia; why he'd come to an area of the galaxy where pirates and slavers roam freely and all shady thing conducts without fear of law? If this's a massive colony with a chance to make high profit then I wouldn't be this suspicious that he's the type to make high-risk-high-reward business decision."

Eve thought for a moment before she shook her head and tell her makeshift family "It's no use for worrying about thing we have little information of; our priority still figuring out a way to stop this strange 'disease' from spreading, I just want everyone to be sharp and prepare for the worst…" She sighed while rubbing her forehead "…having such high profile people on this colony just asking for trouble… by the way, Anchor…" the red-clad synthetic perked up when Eve called her "Though I doubt Oriana will be related to this man considering she clearly didn't recognize him, please ask her if she or the local know about him or what those trucks were, just in case."

The Empress of Nasod didn't want to admit it, but she can feel her instinct telling her that trouble is brewing on this planet, and those strange people were involved one way or another…

* * *

"Ah, those weirdo and their trucks? They're from Sanctuary… You not know of Sanctuary, Missy?" [3]

The local – the first patient of the next morning, who came with a strange allergic reaction to mysterious substance they have yet to identified, reacted as Eve partly expected, and so she set the matter straight by telling him flatly "I've been here not even a week sir, pardon if I'm not familiar with everything going on here."

The bald middle-aged man who was her current patient nodded slightly, yet his eyes glanced warily at the syringe in Eve's hand which – as if knowing what he's staring at - proceed to plunged into his shoulder, ejecting the liquid into his body.

Grunt of pain escaped the man's lip along with several curse word "Bitch… that hurt…" and once the needle was free from his skin, his hand quickly rubbing the spot where the syringe just pierced his skin while he shot a hateful glance at the supposed 'volunteer doctor', but nothing more than that as he know too that without these 'volunteers' the whole village wouldn't receive any help from central Horizon management for a long time due to shortage of capable personnel.

Eve seems to understood his thought by reading facial expression, as she simply revert to business the man came to see her for "In any case, this's a temporary solution, until we can find what caused the allergy, I'm afraid that I'll have you write down a diary, to record where you went each day, what you eat and drink, so the next time this problem flared up again, we can compared note and deduce what caused all the commotion in this settlement."

The man nodded and prepared to leave, but then Eve called him, causing the man to turn back and glared at her, but the white-clad synthetic won't be deterred while she continue her question "Now if that's clear and you don't be in a hurry, can you please elaborate more about this Sanctuary?"

The Empress – turned – doctor remained unflinching at the glare she received from the man while she stared back and reminded him. "As I tell you that if you're in a hurry then I won't press you into answer me. But please…"

She left the sentence hanging. The man relented under her gaze after the contest barely last half a minute. He huffed and pointed out of the window in clinic to the west. "They set up headquarter there in the west, some hundred miles away from this village and other settlements. A resort for rich guys to blow off steam or something, I'm not the one you should ask about this stuff."

A tinge of jealousy in the man's voice couldn't escape Eve's acute ears and she inquired "You make it sound like it's a bad thing they did."

"Bad? No!..." the man quickly denied, but the frown deepens while he mumbled "…If they'd only help us who came first more than just giving some qualify eggheads for a job of course!"

Eve raised her eyebrow at the blatant display of jealousy mixed with bigotry but decided to keep her mouth shut and let the man vent out his frustration – which is the usual mistrust toward this 'Sanctuary Group' – without interruption, after all, she's a 'doctor' right now, and even if she's a ruler; listening to the problem of her subjects and help them is also her job.

"Since Sanctuary opened a couple of years ago, they came here time to time with that radar dish truck of theirs, seem to try receiving some signal, but don't ask me what! Those merc won't let anyone close to their trucks, threatening us with lawsuit – as if those big-ass guns they held didn't does that job well enough already…"

Then the rants shifted to the Horizon colony itself…

"And the colony did jack when it was clear from the last year raid that those four-eye freaks won't touch Sanctuary because of all the defenses they set up around the complex! They should've purchase at least some GARDIAN turrets to shoo pirates away, but no! _'We don't have enough credit to buy something that expensive'_…" the man spat "Yeah, right, and we don't have enough capable doctors to the point that we have to rely on you, Missy. Wondering what all our hard-earned credits we paid them every year went off to?"

Once the man let off all the pent-up steam, he thanks Eve for her silent understanding before he left. Which the Empress reminded him to record all the places he went and his diet in case the fever returned.

All in all, it worked in her favor in a sense that the man was a little more open to her and divulged some information… what disappointing her was that she couldn't enjoy her tea while listening to the man; after all, it was rude to do so. And it didn't help solving the 'fever problem' nor did settle down her itching feeling about this mysterious man who owned the 'Sanctuary' at all.

Rumbling sound of heavy vehicles entered her ears, but Eve paid them no mind as another man just entered the makeshift clinic she's operating in.

The routine will continued for the whole morning, repeated for every single room in the volunteer clinics lining the vacant street just outside the village proper; patients will come to see one of the doctors who's not treating other villager, received treatment which only amounted to painkiller or anti-allergy drug due to no one could figure out the root of the fever just yet, then left with advice from those doctors to record their activity to help figuring out the problem, rinse, repeat…

Even though this's more than a week since the incident started, the number of patients didn't decrease at all, thanks to number of volunteers and local doctors amounted to barely a dozen, while the population of this so-called 'village' was 30,000 not counting the underage. The only good thing that came up until now was that the village was successfully quarantined from the main settlement thus this mysterious disease won't spread further than this place… for now at least.

Once the clock strike twelve at noon, almost all volunteers and local doctors move out of clinic for lunch while the Nasod Empress and her family watched over their clinics in case someone request immediate treatment.

It just that eating was optional for Eve and her family, and thus they didn't feel hungry. Not that those human would know.

And so all four of them, Eve, Oberon, Ophelia and Anchor decided to loiter on the second floor of said clinic and enjoy the cloudless sky, just like a normal family.

"So, Oriana left for lunch too, Anchor?" Eve asked curiously.

Her daughter nodded "Yes, she want to take Anchor with her, but Anchor chose to stay here. She told Anchor that it'd be boring until lunchtime is over from her experience." She tilted her head slightly and smiled innocently "But Anchor thinks that we shouldn't slack in our duties."

Eve chuckled when Anchor jumped on the railing and begin walking on it slowly with her arms spread wide like a gymnast while Oberon and Ophelia shook their head at the sight of childish act yet they didn't complain or warn the child, as she's already quite 'mature' despite the appearance, and could look after herself thanks to her ability.

But then a sound of engine made Anchor's gymnastic session grounded to a halt, she hopped down on the floor and looked at the approaching vehicle. Her eyes – as well as Eve's – showed a flash of surprise when they saw that it was a space-capable shuttle instead of land-bounded vehicle the colonists used.

However what made the whole group become wary was that the shuttle was armed, and those armament were concealed behind hatches and plating! And the reason why they know this was because of their superior optics could see the detail where normal naked eyes of human couldn't.

"Mother…" Anchor – who came to standing next to Eve - whispered warily as the shuttle slowly came to a stop at a clearing just a few dozen meters away from all the buildings and begin to land.

Eve simply hold the child's hand and squeezed it lightly, silently affirming her while all of them prepare for the worst.

Thankfully that once the shuttle's door slid opened there was no armed men rushing out, no pirates, no slavers, but only a single biped Alien in fully enclosed black suit with yellow lining; the horns on his head and the large pair of black eyes give away his species as Salarian even though most of facial features hidden behind transparent breathing mask.

Yet the Salarian was armed, and that's why the group still on edge.

'_So he knows about condition of this place at least…'_ Eve thought as the alien noticed four of them and made his way toward the clinic, though he didn't display any sign of aggression, his eyes seems to go all over the place as if looking for clues or covers for the firefight, his hand relaxed yet in position that could draw the sidearm hanging on his belt at a moment notice, clearly a force of habit from whatever his line of work was.

Soon enough, the Salarian stopped at the front of the clinic building and ring the bell, which Eve decided to come down and greet the alien in person.

Two of them locked eyes for split second before Eve greeted him politely, while her eyes glancing at the Salarian's sidearm once in a while warily "Welcome to the volunteer clinic, currently this village is under quarantine due to epidemic, if you have important business please state it now."

Those big-black eyes blinked twice or so, before the Salarian spoke up in Standard Galactic Language, words come out of his mouth so fast as if it was machine gun "Greeting, **Jondum Bau**, investigator from Citadel…" with that he tapped Omni-Tool on his wrist producing an identity card for Eve and her retainers to see – which has the same Seal that Eve have seen before on Commander Shepard's, and when her eyes checked carefully for counterfeit, it seem legit "…I'm in pursuit of a criminal fugitive named Kasumi Goto from Citadel Space, recent clue led me to believe that she's hiding on – or passing through this colony recently. [4]"

At first, Eve thought that this's another so-called '_SPECTRE_' in pursuit of the _'Turian'_ known as _'Saren'_, but she dismissed that thought instantly when Jondum specifically referred to the criminal as female, and it's been clear that he has pursuit this one for quite some time already.

Eve broke out of her thought when Oberon spoke up and bowed slightly at the Salarian "I'm sorry, Inspector Jondum, but we've been on this colony for only a few days, so unless this fugitive was injured and came here for treatment two or three days prior, I doubt that we'd have seen her."

Jondum nodded "That… still be appreciated if you'd divulge to me the appearance of those you treated. Hopefully we're not breaching any personal secret here."

Eve thought about it for a moment, before she brought up her Omni-Tool – gifted to her by Hagus back on Eden Prime – out and begins showing face of her past patients and their name "You won't get any more than name and face…" she narrowed her golden eyes at the Salarian inspector "I hope I make my point clear, Inspector."

She wanted to call him by his species to denote how serious he's toeing the moral line here, but alas, she knew from Remy observing the interaction between Shepard and his crew enough that such behavior was considered racist in this community, thus she opted for his title instead.

And seemingly the inspector know this too, as his rapidly tapping his Omni-Tool to capture patients' face for analysis, he still not taking his eyes off the Empress while sincerely replies "Thank you for your cooperation… Miss…"

"Eve…" she figured that telling him her name won't hurt, and it better at avoiding suspicion too.

"…Ah, so Miss Eve then…" Jondum nodded his head while spoke rapidly while turning away toward the village "No one leave this perimeter?"

"Like I said before, we're experiencing a strange epidemic here, and the entire village has been quarantined for the time being." Eve then glanced at the inspector with concern "I'm not sure if the colonial management will allow you to leave this place until the situation has been resolved."

"Problematic…" the inspector muttered, but then his eyes narrowed slightly at Eve, then at Anchor "But why not your child wears any protective clothing?"

"We're experiencing shortage on equipment here. Even the colonists don't have enough protective gears for their entire population…" Eve replied fluently as she already used this one excuse at the colonists a few days prior "…and before you ask, most of the volunteers got sent here with no protective gears, some of us also got sick, but it was the risk we're willing to take." She faked the grimace for good measure at the last sentence too.

"My condolence to your devotion…"

Seemingly, Jondum believed her excuse too…

"…but why your child…"

…but it seem he still has some issue after all…

Then the petite brunette in red quickly spoke up in timid voice "Anchor chose to not borrow protective equipment…" she paused a bit, then looked at the inspector with determination "Anchor also volunteered to come here, Anchor cannot get special treatment just because Anchor is… is small…"

That took the inspector by surprise – just a little – or he didn't want to argue any further, as he backed down on the issue and back to business "Apology. Still can you tell me where to speak with the one in charge here?"

"They're on lunch break, we're on shift…" Eve replies matter-of-factly, then motioned her head toward the village "…You may find them at the central square. It's a market there."

"Thank again for your assistance, Ma'am…" Jondum turned to leave, with his rapid footstep that's not quite running; he disappeared into the village in less than a minute.

"He's quite a nice people…" Oberon comment broke silence the moment the Salarian left their sight. "…at least he won't antagonize the villagers that much."

Ophelia, who was silent until now add her thought "No law enforcer ever been authorized to torture innocent for information."

"Actually, SPECTREs are exempt from that law…" Eve corrected her retainers while her eyes still not leave the corner of the shelter where they lost Jondum from their sight, a smile crossed her lip for a moment "At least this one still not corrupted by such privilege, and I hope that he remain that way."

Hush silence fell upon the four of them for a moment, before Oberon spoke up with concern "I hope that he'd realize that he couldn't leave this village on the risk of potentially carrying and spreading unidentified disease off-world. Actually I'm inclined to believe that this thief 'Kasumi Goto' lured him here specifically to shake him off her tail by trapping him in a quarantined zone."

"A valid assessment…" Eve complimented her retainer, but then brings up argument "…yet I doubt that the thief could've enough time to spread the rumor of herself to reach the inspector's ears this fast; this epidemic started just barely a month ago…"

The four of them begins pondering on how fast news travel in this galaxy, but couldn't delved on it for long as another interruption caught their ears in form of multiple people screaming in pain and sound of a vehicle rumbled from inside the village, which all the shelters blocking their sight there's no way for Eve, her retainers and daughter to know what happened from here at all!

Without the need to say a word, Eve and her '_family_' rushed into the village, inwardly praying that they're not too late…

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] Think about it, at this point in timeline, he cut support from the notorious terrorist organization; he'd be stupid to not have his own Private Military Contractor to protect his skin.**

**[2] Code Nemesis' skill. I tried to make it plausible to give Anchor at least a semblance of what she had in the series she came from. Those who read Clockwork Planet know what I'm talking about. **

**But even if you never heard or don't want to read the source materials, the hint is in the story already.**

**[3] I know that with our advancement in construction method we could build skyscraper in a year or so, but considering _'what hidden inside'_ this place when we get there in Mass Effect 3, I doubt that such elaborate thing take only less than a year to complete when you have to hide the progress from prying eyes, so I go with the route **_**'It was already there but not mention in the previous games'**_** instead.**

**[4] It said that he tried to catch certain thief for years before we even met both of them proper, and since there's no backstory about those two rivalry, I decided to take liberty here. Think of it as 'what could have been' or 'alternate universe' if you will.**

**Hope that my portrayal of Shepard is still reasonable and human. Heck, everyone for that matter. If there's any problem I overlook, feel free to criticize.**


	9. Chapter 9

**This Chapter still not Beta, please bear with grammar mistake until then.**

* * *

**Chapter 9 Enemy of the enemy is my friend**

There was a small, fertile world where no space-faring civilization ever claimed the right to settle on, where jungle covered the surface of a planet's sole landmass and non-sentient roamed the ground, sky and sea; so far, it was a picture of natural paradise long lost to most spacefaring civilization whose homeworld polluted by waste and overpopulation thanks to their advanced technology.

However, if one were to look carefully at the beach on one side of this landmass, they'll spot landmarks that stood contrast to everything described above, as this one was clearly made by advanced technology, not by work of nature; series of multiple steel gray concrete structures buried into rocky cliffs, antennas, towers, or even turrets with black barrels poking out of bushes and trees covering the top of natural rocky peaks, walkways made of steel cut passages between one installation and another over shallow water. And last but not least; cycloptic, bipedal robots of various sizes armed with state of the art firearms patrolling all over these installations, watchful for any intruders, alongside many fully-armed lizard-like aliens in armored spacesuit.

Not only on the ground, but in the sky, while flocks of bird-like creatures flying around minding their own business, they still have to give a wide berth from a flock of metallic drones patrolling the perimeter of the artificial construct least the drones spit bullets at them like hundred that died a gory death up until now.

Inside the control room carved into solid rock, reinforced with concrete and composite material deep undergrounds of the central facility inland, a lone, tall figure in grey armored spacesuit stood among array of holographic console, his icy blue eyes wandered from one display to another, his pale, sharp angled metallic grey face with mandible flanking his mouth – a distinctive trait of Turian – had blue glowing dots around protruding cheekbone, and most disturbingly, his left arm was entirely mechanical with several wires and tubes connecting along its length to his body.

"Not good…" the Turian muttered in low voice, his eyes narrowed at one displaying report from his 'follower' currently battling on world of Feros, before he scowled at the lack of competency of said 'followers' in trying to dispose the clue that could lead Shepard to him – if Shepard find out that is.

Of course, he has reason to be displeased; after all, said 'lead' they tried to dispose was just stupid organism, barely called 'sentient', has no way of defending itself except its own 'indoctrinated' colonists, or spawning stupid clone of said colonists made of plant-like tissues, while his 'follower' were literal killer robots from space with technology to match!

Somehow the creature's minions held the line and stopped the Geth in a stalemate that won't break anytime soon, and that made him worried, as reinforcement from System Alliance, or worse, certain Citadel SPECTRE could show up at any minute and that would mean the risk are high that secret of what he's searching for out.

Looking up toward the ceiling as if to see through it, the Turian calmed himself down, even if they find out what he's searching for, it'll be useless to them in the end; Sovereign and the Reapers are unstoppable, and only with his method that'll save the galactic civilization from coming apocalypse...

Or did he? Some part of the Turian's mind still questioning himself whether he's doing the right thing, but it's like whisper in the wind; barely audible, barely heard. Rational and logical thought tells him that despite the doubt, he'll be proven right in the end.

It doesn't matter; the Turian shook his doubt away and refocus on the present, all he had to do is to make sure that everything else went smoothly until it was time for him to carry out the mission to bring back the Reapers from dark space.

From the report of this very base; things went well for the time being, though he'd hope that he never exposed like this – not this fast, as it severed his contracts and supports at such crucial time.

True, inside this base there was all that he needed to build an army; from cloning facility to create Krogan at alarming pace – like the day before Genophage – to be raised and trained as his – no – Reapers' army, to many farms that raise crops to feed those brutish space lizards, to factories that produce everything from basic assault rifle to more Geth platforms. Only thing missing was starship to which the follower of 'The Prophet of Reapers' graciously supplies from somewhere in Terminus system.

Unfortunately, high-grade raw materials and the much-needed Element Zero which is required for manufacturing weapons and Geth Platforms didn't grow on trees, and this garden world lacked such natural resources means that the factories suffered shortage of materials the moment he got stripped of his SPECTRE status and branded as criminal. Although he still has some contact with a shady organizations and warlords in Terminus system that willing to give him what he want in exchange for some his fortune – or stopping him from blackmailing them into submission, the amount of resources coming to this world become minimal to say the least.

And that mean raising a sufficiently large army for the mission became much harder than before…

Saren was no fool, he know that Sovereign needed him to achieve final phase of the plan, and said 'final phase' involve ground assault on the Citadel – the most secured place in known galactic civilizations, even if his attack will come as a surprise, if he has few troops, then the combination of C-Sec and army stationed there could wipe them out, failing the objective.

Not to mentioned that Sovereign wanted him to create a large army so that they could capitalize as much advantage as possible once the Reapers returned and when the major power of galactic civilizations still reeling from decapitation of their leaderships.

Now, it's a race against the clock trying to raise largest army as possible before this base get discover by those frog's nosy STG operatives, but Saren still quite confident that they won't be able to find this base for at least a month if not longer, and by then, he'd have about hundred more Krogan for the cause which should be enough to take the Citadel without much risk.

But Saren couldn't help but a little bitter about reduced production rate of his army, and the loss of his other assets like Benezia and her commandos due to the accursed human's intervention.

Suddenly, alarms blared all around him signifying emergency. Saren's eyes glanced around the console before barking order to it which he know will reach the Geth possessing the software of all electronics in the base "Status report!"

"_-Intruder alert, Salarian ship detected entering atmosphere in sector ten, Prophet…-"  
_Monotonous voice – no doubt the Geth which resides within central AI core of this base quickly filling in the situation, holographic display in front of Saren shifted to showing the sight of a small craft approaching the ground at high speed which made its underside burn red hot from atmospheric reentry and about to passing through the surveillance equipment.

Saren's mandible flared open in rage at the lack of action on Geth's part "What are you waiting for? Shoot them down now!"

"_-Doing so will guarantee to compromise the base's secrecy; from reentry trajectory there's 75.2% chances that the Salarian has yet to detect our base and may land on the wrong side of the continent.-"_

Saren paused and think about it while watching the spacecraft passing through another hidden camera; the Geth's logic seem sounded enough – for what it worth – but Saren knew STG enough to realize that the reason they'll land to investigate random uninhabited planet at all was because they detected something out of ordinary there – or in this case; maybe some of the Geth ships were seen entering Virmire, maybe some of the shady organization he has contact with betrayed him to the Council, or even the Shadow Broker doing his usual thing and sell him out, any of these were equally possible.

But that doesn't matter at the moment; the fact that this base has been found was what concerned him now.

Saren appeared distraught for a moment, but then smirked, what is he worry about? It's not like he's going to let those frog-like Alien undermine him, it's not like he's going to let them go and spill the bean about their location, he has been doing something like this over decades of his career, a bunch of Salarian adding to that list isn't going to make his hands any dirtier.

Besides, he's in need for some… guinea pigs… to study the effect of indoctrination, and who know, these Salarians may prove useful, for his own study, and for Sovereign once the Reapers returned… And even if that's not the case, Saren think that it's time those Krogans clones need some real fighting experience.

And thus he ordered the Geth through the command console "No matter; shoot them down! Activate signal jammer. Once their shuttle is down, form up search parties between your platforms and Krogans and hunt them down, I want them alive, if at all possible."

_"-By your command, Prophet…-"_

Once the orders being carried out, Saren tapped on the console a few time, shifting the monitor to displaying an obsidian colored, obelisk-like construct kept inside the laboratory of this base and decided that it's time to pay this ancient artifact a visit once more; Perhaps after getting the stupid Cipher from Thorian on Feros, this time he'll finally be able to decipher the Conduit.

He'll not be stopped… for the greater good of the galaxy…

* * *

Jondum Bau casually strolled into the market of the small village on Horizon, keeping his mind and eyes sharp for every little detail that may lead him on the trail of the master thief he's been after.

The Salarian inspector tried questioning some villagers on the way to the village square, but fishing for information is difficult on this kind of colony; they're under constant threat of pirate and slaver raid – most of them Aliens – added in the strange disease spreading throughout the settlement and it wasn't hard to see why they were wary of his presence.

Still, he's SPECTREs of the Citadel, and he'll persevere to complete his objective.

However, after asking half dozen people – most of them authority of this place - about fugitive he's trying to arrest, he came to half-conclusion that the master thief tricked him, again! And this time, he may as well have to drop the case for a while thanks to being in epidemic quarantine zone; after all, it's not a good idea to risk spreading disease off-world.

'_At least I still have something to do… even it's not my expertise…'_ Jondum sighed inwardly while watching civilians in mask passing by with some shot him wary or distrust glances. But he paid them no mind while mulling over how to help solving this epidemic.

And when he recalled conversations with habitants, he glanced at a couple of trucks parking innocently at the side of market square which had not-so-innocent personnel from private military contractors standing guard with firearms with suspicion.

'_It seems they could come and go as they pleased despite the quarantine because they promised not to go anywhere but between here and Sactuary' _Jondum thought with disdain at the lack of concern from the Horizon colonial management just because this private company supplied those big wigs with luxurious items as 'a gift' to make them look the other way _'Unfortunately that this place didn't fall under Citadel rule, or I'll make sure to ruin them.'_

Ruin them or not, it depends on how his investigation turned out.

As Jondum approached the truck with radar dish on top, the armored men react to his presence as expected – that is, blocking his way and trying to look threatening, emphasis on trying of course.

"Not one step closer, frog face." The one in front of Jondum spoke while looking down on him, then he pointed around the square "…did you not see that other people here didn't come near us? Or your big eyes were there just to make pretty face for your mate, Salarian?"

Some of the guards laughed at the comment, but the SPECTRE didn't care; after all, if they looked down on him, then they underestimate him, and that make them never see him coming – should it come to that of course.

But for now, he lacks evidences, and so he decided to stick to his original plan first by asking about criminal, especially recent theft in the vicinity or in place where these men came from.

The PMC (Private Military Contractor) personnel seems nervous for some reason the moment Jondum made his SPECTRE status known, before they fall back and whisper among themselves for a moment. Once that over, one of them came forward and sneered at him, seemingly trying to put up strong front against the Salarian "There's no theft under our watch back at Sanctuary if you're wondering, Salarian…"

The man nodded his head at the civilians who quickly scurried away from them, before he turned back to the Salarian "…but even if your so-called criminal is hiding among the populous here, then it won't matter in the end."

"What do you mean by that?"

Jondum asked out of reflect, but instinctively he dreaded the answer these men might give, years of accumulated experience screaming at him to prepare for conflict – the kind that has bullets flying.

Even though the man who's talking to Jondum wore a mask, his cryptic answer made it clear that he's smirking at the SPECTRE right now "You'll know soon enough if you keep sticking around this place for a day or two, Salarian."

As on cue; all the civilians around the square suddenly dropped onto the ground screaming on top of their lungs with hands covering their head, some rolling back and forth, pained expression etched on everyone's face make it clear that they're in pain!

Still, listening to victims' plea, Jondum felt that there's more than just a simple epidemic at work here, which he doubt was a good kind of thing.

"My head! It hurt!"

"Make it stop!"

"I'll do as you ask, please go away!"

"Out… of my… head… Get… Out!"

Jondum didn't take his eyes off the PMC more than a split second while slowly backed away from the armed men who are unaffected by the sudden turn of event, but his eye for details noticed from the PMC's posture that they're also as confused as him, it was certain that they didn't expected this – whatever what caused this symptom to simultaneously attacked people to show up now either.

Before he could ponder any further; a shriek of a woman sounded along with gunfire from around the corner behind the Sanctuary's trucks drew everyone's attention.

The SPECTRE quickly duck for the nearest concrete fence out of instinct, his hand reached for his pistol as he carefully peek over at where the sound came from – only to blinked in confusion at the sight of unconscious woman getting carried by one PMC personnel showing up around the corner and then get into the other truck that didn't have strange dish on top.

Before Jondum could've said anything, the PMC draw their weapons, safety off, and pointed them in his direction, their message clear that they wanted him out of the picture now.

Without wasting time, Jondum whipped out his pistol and fire first, forcing some of the men to duck away, blue glow of Kinetic barrier shimmered next to the head of their chief protected him from fatal shot before the man got into cover – the truck with satellite dish and began exchanging fire. Meanwhile, another truck which the couple of PMC stowed the unconscious woman started up and running off down the main street before disappeared from his sight.

Jondum could only curse his luck when one civilian caught a round to his chest while he's busy convoluting on the ground in pain near the fence where the SPECTRE was hiding and returning fire to the PMCs. But the Salarian SPECTRE could only watch and prayed for the poor man while he was waiting for his gun to cool off for a few seconds behind cover before pop back and return fire once the PMCs stopped shooting to cool their own guns. [1]

The sudden change in behaviors of those PMCs was all Jondum needed to realize that they contacted their superior earlier, and now said superior in Sactuary wanted Jondum silenced, which means something sinister is occurring in Sactuary and this village more than just simple epidemic. To which if he found incriminating evidence, the SPECTRE will make sure to ruin them, out of Citadel Council's jurisdiction be damned considering that this 'epidemic' could easily be a new bio-weapon that threaten Citadel Space soon in the future…

…well, if he could get out of this firefight alive first…

Poking his head out for a split second, Jondum quickly duck again as hails of bullets passed over where his head once been, but even then, the PMCs couldn't preventing the SPECTRE from getting information of the surrounding – namely, they're trying to flank his position!

To be frank, Jondum couldn't be gladder that all this colony structures being so tough and those PMCs didn't have grenades or explosive weapons, or he'd turned into beehive already.

But since he know about it, he was prepared and the moment one of the PMC popped up around the fence he's hiding, Jondum greeted him with a punch to the human's head followed by pressing his pistol on the man's helmet to bypass kinetic barrier protection and unload the content result in blood and brain matter splattered out of the back of PMC's helmet as the man fell over, dead.

The Salarian quickly dragged the corpse to cover and pry assault rifle from its grasp. Jondum let out a sigh of relieve when he scanned the weapon; it still functional.

The moment of reprieve was short, as Jondum finished checking weapon, another pair of PMCs showed up from the same flank with their weapons pointing at him. The Salarian sprayed his newly acquired rifle down range before they could pull the triggers, yet the Kinetic barriers protected them from the would-be fatal shots – just like Jondum's own did – and they return fire without bothering with cover, trusting their Kinetic Barrier to save them.

Thankfully, being Special operative of Citadel and a member of Salarian Special Task Group has its privileges; namely state-of-the-art personal kinetic barrier; more efficient, stronger and lighter, which what saved Jondum from the two attackers while he's able to gunned them all down at the expense of his shield being overloaded and out of action for a minute. [2]

As he waiting for the kinetic barrier to reactivate, Jondum noticed that there're no more bullets pelting the fence he's hiding, yet the sound of gunfire did not stop and he could hear PMCs shouting in panic as well.

Jondum didn't need to peek over cover to know what's happening when one of the civilian rushed around the corner on all four, his eyes flashed red and roared at the Salarian like a wild animal before sprinting toward him with mouth open wide as if wanted nothing more than sinking his fangs onto alien's flesh. SPECTRE's training kicked in as Jondum quickly unloaded precise shots on the man's four limbs with his pistol, incapacitated him.

The reason why Jondum didn't aimed for the man's head was because unlike certain traitorous SPECTRE, Jondum will avoid civilian casualties if he can help it, not to mention that he needed as many 'infected' alive if he wants to find the cure and end this outbreak before it spread off-world.

Of course, listening to the PMC's shouting and yelling also revealed some disturbing information which may point him in the right direction.

"Damn it, Robert, shut it down! I repeat, Shut It Down!"

"Security has been overridden Sarge! I can't shut it down!"

"Just blow the truck up then Robert!"

"I'm in the truck and I'm trapped sir!"

"We don't have explosive boss, trucks is bulletproof too!"

"Damn you… Arrgh!"

Whatever they're trying to say were drowned by screaming and primal roars unlike wild animals which made the gunfire stopped, but Jondum also has a problem on his own too; like running away from the market square to regroup… elsewhere while being chased by frenzied infected civilians pouring out from households along the road.

Sure, he could just pull out his recently acquired automatic weapons and gun them all down, seeing that none of them has Personal Kinetic Barriers, they won't stand a chance to get close at all, but just like Jondum thought earlier; he has standard and it'll compromise the investigation.

As his luck would have it; the moment the Salarian rounded another corner in an effort to flee to his shuttle at the village outskirt, he found another group of frenzied civilians chasing and attacking other group who clearly didn't contact the mysterious disease considering that they're still able to speak coherently – namely trying to talk the infected back to their sense, which is hopeless in Jondum's opinion, as it's clear that the attackers don't listen at all.

However, before Jondum could intervene, two blur, one red and one white, shot across the street passing through the infected, and suddenly, all the frenzied colonists - about a dozen of them - collapsed like puppets whose strings being cut.

The mysterious collapse of the infected revealed itself moment later as the little girl in red and the helmeted white butler he met earlier at the clinic on the outskirt of the village. The girl used flat side of her large longsword – when compared to her stature –to bash the frenzied colonists' head sending them to the dream world, while the butler used a pair of tonfa for the same purpose.

Screams snapped Jondum's attention back to the group of infected that's coming from behind him, but he was surprised to see them all on the ground, unconscious, with two other ladies in white he met earlier at the clinic dusting off their dresses amidst the heap of fallen. And before he could inquire them, the butler and the maid – if he remembered the human culture from data file he studied correctly – stand sentry while the mother and daughter pair somehow slipped through Jondum's watchful eyes and now kneeling besides the frightened colonists, checking over them, and in case of the brunette in red – her longsword mysteriously disappeared!

Salarian SPECTRE decided to approach the group to question them; the maid and the butler let him passed without much trouble, and before he know it, he's scaring the local to back away from him, if those fearful glance they shot at him were any indication.

But it get what SPECTRE needed, as that grabbed the attention from the mother and daughter; the two looked at him, their eyes lingered on his hand – rather disapprovingly - for a while until they silently made him realized that he still holding an assault rifle nicked from the Sanctuary PMC.

'_No surprise they reacted like that.'_ Jondum berated himself for his slackness while stowing the offending object on his back before showing both of his bare hands to the civilians who seem relax a little at the gesture of peace from the SPECTRE.

For a moment, there was silence – if not counting the primal scream and roar from the village square or distant part of this community which probably from the infected people – before the mother – Eve, spoke up first "Are you hurt, inspector?"

The concern in her voice was unmistakable, she really meant it, and thus Jondum see no reason to not answer, crisp and to the point, just like typical good Salarian "No injury so far, Miss Eve." But then he felt the need to add something urgent "The people from the Sanctuary have been gunning down those that went frenzy after that strange symptom acted up, I fear that there're many more injured in the square."

One of the injured but still normal human colonists who just got treated shot up, burning hate in his eyes as he spat "It was your entire fault, damn Salarian! If you're not here then…"

"Be reasonable! He just arrived here less than an hour, how can he trigger this… this epidemic at all?" one of the female human colonists quickly moved to defend Jondum, she showed sign of panic, but still level-headed and seems to hold some respect with the group as other colonists nodded in agreement with her statement.

The man relented, but still glaring hate at Jondum until Eve steps up, her face flashed a mischievous smile for split second "Indeed, I remembered him accusing us for come to spreading the disease despite everyone arrived long after the epidemic started."

The man opened and closed his mouth, no doubt cannot rebuke the statements when the whole group was against him, he threw his hands up in the air and then make his way toward the outskirt despite protests from others that they should stick together and not venture out alone when the frenzied colonists roaming around.

Eve turned to the Salarian SPECTRE; her golden eyes seem pledging and tell him "We should escort all of them to the Clinic first."

Jondum blinked his large eyes for a second before inquired "Shouldn't we let them escape the village and warn other?" at this, he has to wonder himself; why the alarm did not sound yet? But then again, if almost entire population of this place has been turned into frenzied animal then it's not far-fetched that the communication operators get turned too.

His suggestion caught the attention of everyone there – namely the colonists who remain sane – perk up with hope that they could escape this hellhole prison soon.

Yet, Jondum know that he couldn't let them do that and the white haired lady agreed with him with her next sentence "As much as I loved to, I cannot let them out of this place…" she hold her hands out at the crowd in placating manner "…please understand that we know next to nothing about this strange epidemic, what if some of you are asymptomatic carriers? This could easily turn into planetary outbreak or something worse."

Colonists' shoulders slumped, but they couldn't mope around for too long as the black-haired maid with unnerving yellow approached Eve and said loud enough for everyone to hear "Some of the _'problematic colonists'_ are heading this way, we should get to the shelter on the outskirt to avoid confrontation."

Jondum looked at the colonists and saw that they're frightened at the maid's word until Eve steps in, her tone as calm as if talking about weather "Calm down and let's head to the Clinic first, I believe we have enough room to shelter you all while we trying to figure things out."

Jondum couldn't help but impressed a bit at the so-called _'Volunteer Doctor Eve'_ when everyone quietly got up and head for the Clinic as fast as they could without making much noise.

* * *

Soon enough, everyone reached the outskirt of the village where the Clinic for the volunteers located, Jondum breaths out a sigh of relieve when he see that his shuttle still intact and untouched. Eve ushered everyone inside the Clinic – a good move on her part – as Jondum spotted several 'insane colonists' shambling out of the village toward them.

Once they're inside the shelter, everyone finally relaxed a bit, some colonists went for the fridge to get some refreshment, much to the ire of the maid, only with Eve placing her hand on her shoulder that made the maid relented and let them get some water.

As a dozen of colonists settled down around the diagnosis table in the center, Eve calmly spoke to the colonists – or what's left of them "Food and water supplies in here should last for two weeks at least so we won't have any problem… for now."

Awkward silence fell upon them for a moment before Eve turn to speak with Jondum with serious face "Inspector, can the communication system in your shuttle contact central Horizon colonial administration and inform them of what's going on here?"

The Salarian thought it for a moment before replies – rather bluntly "The equipment should work, but I doubt they'll send any help considering what they did when the epidemic started... from what I gathered…" he added as an afterthought.

Some of the colonists who listened in hung their head low in grim acceptance that the Horizon practically left them to their fate; previously relaxing atmosphere replaced by a gloomy one in an instant.

The only child in this shelter – Anchor, looks around worriedly before asking one of the colonists "Did anyone see Miss Oriana and other volunteers?"

Her worry grew further once everyone shook their head… except one woman who told her that the last thing she saw when the infected turned frenzy was several PMCs from the Sanctuary abducted the brunette while firing guns in the air in broad daylight.

That made Jondum chimed in "Yes, I saw them abducted one human woman into the truck and drove off before the other merc tried to kill me…" Then he strokes his chin in thought "does she also infect by this 'mysterious disease'?"

Anchor glanced at Eve for a second before she nodded at Jondum and adds "But her symptoms wasn't acting up as bad as others, she still able to helped Anchor on an errand yesterday while other volunteers confined to bed."

"Perhaps that's precisely why they abducted her…" Jondum sighed before looking outside through the peephole on the window panel, thinking hard on what he learned so far.

The primary suspect now turned toward the 'Sanctuary' group, but he lacked evidences except the fact that they tried to kill him the moment this 'Outbreak' started. The only way to solve this puzzle was to infiltrate the place. But right now he's certain that the Sanctuary already know that there's a SPECTREs on this planet, and judging from what colonists spoke about them; their defenses are top notch to the point that pirates and slavers dare not to touch them when raiding this backwater colony, going alone now would be suicide.

But if he did nothing, there's no guarantee that they won't send more men here to finish the job, sooner or later this village will be in danger again.

Suddenly, Jondum realized that the white-haired woman – Eve – was inches away from him, her golden eyes stared into his. He tensed up a bit, mind wondering how she could get this close without him noticing, and there's something about her family that seems to unsettled him, yet he couldn't pinpoint why.

"Do you have any leads yet, Inspector Jondum?"

Eve inquired him before he could question her, but then again, her question seems to made the SPECTRE remember certain detail about his confrontation with Sanctuary PMC, his eyes widen as he nodded at her and whispered, clearly not want the colonists to draw any wrong conclusions "They left one truck back at the market square, but it's crawling with the infected."

The white haired woman in strange white and gold dress tilted her head slightly, which the Salarian understood what she's about to ask and elaborates "I overheard them saying something…" he paused a little, pondered how much he could let her in this before continues "…that led me to believe that there's evidence inside it. But even if that's not the case, there still one PMC trapped inside, if hurry, might get some intel from him."

The woman stared at him for a while, and then she asked the million credits question "How do you plan to get back there, Mr. Jondum?"

The Salarian shook his head immediately, knowing that even if he use ruthless approach and killed every infected one to get there, he'll soon overwhelm by their sheer number anyway. And Eve seems to notice his dilemma too…

"Still… its trice now that my family quiet medical works has been interrupted, I wonder if there's something in this galaxy that conspired to make life of those in this line of work suffers…"

…only that the next thing Eve said doesn't making any sense to Jondum at all, but then again, judging from her murmur, she doesn't intend to let anyone hear her anyway. To which she excused herself to have a talk with her family, which Jondum didn't care much as he has much bigger problem to solve…

* * *

Eve backed away from the SPECTRE, and then she nodded at her 'family' calling them to gather in the other room. Once Oberon closed the door behind, she begins by asking their opinions using their internal communication which comparable to talking with mind _'I planned on helping the inspector get back to the square, and perhaps finding a way to end this crisis.'_

Ophelia looked at her charge disapprovingly, her stern voice reverberating inside the Empress's mind as the maid crossed her arms while looming above her _'Milady, you know that doing so mean risk exposing our true nature, and the danger it'll bring as long as we stay here, in this galaxy?'_

'_And you have any other idea?'_ The Empress asked back neutrally, neither angry nor disappointed with her maid.

The stern maid let out a sigh of resignation, _'None that you would approve of. I just want you to be careful, Milady'_

After all, she knew that once her mistress set her mind into something, then she won't quit easily, and Ophelia herself have to admit; though her mistress may seem whimsical at time, The Empress is far from stupid and reckless unlike certain redhead swordsman she befriended.

Eve turned to Oberon, which he simply shrugged_ 'We'll follow you regardless, Milady.'_

For Anchor, she nodded and spoke up while staring at the floor, her hands clenched _'Anchor doesn't like that we have to fight and kill people – those mercenary, but Anchor want to help Miss Oriana and get to the bottom of this…'_ then she shook her head and looks straight at the Empress, determination in her eyes _'…but Anchor know Mother Eve always care for Anchor and everyone, Anchor will follow Mother Eve... even…' she suddenly revert back to staring down the floor again '…even if Mother tell Anchor not to help.'_

Eve smiled at her companion and family, showing silent gratitude, before walking out of the room and talk to the Salarian who was observing the street from the window "Mr. Jondum…"

The SPECTRE turned back and finds Eve looking at him with her family standing behind her, and again, before he could ask, the white haired woman continues "My family and I may be able to assist you in returning to the market square, inspector."

Jondum tried to tell her that he wouldn't involve civilians in this dangerous operation, but Eve cut him off "Please save your argument, Inspector, we all want to end this crisis as fast as possible to avoid possible widespread casualties, and I believe some of our… abilities… might be of use here."

Jondum glanced over Eve and toward her family members; discounting the butler who wore opaque helmet obscuring his facial expression, he could see that the rest of them has determined look in their eyes, even if the intimidating factor was almost ruined by the fact that two of them – Eve and Anchor to be specific – are quite short.

It was clear that he really has no choice; he felt that it's better that they're supervised by his experience than run off into danger alone, and besides, he still at a loss on what to do and his instinct told him that Eve was serious this time around.

Crisis brought change to people indeed…

The SPECTRE made up his mind, but he still asks out of concern regarding colonists taking shelter in the Clinic "If you're coming with me, then what about others?" he motioned at the colonists who was talking among themselves on the other side of the room, in the comfort of air conditioning and comfy seats intended for patients visiting the clinic.

But, as it turned out, the colonists were quick to point out that some of them are former Alliance soldiers and thus can defend themselves if given a weapon. Not to mention that they seem… eager to let them go to what they presumed to be suicide given the look they gave Salarian and Eve.

'_It's official; they hated strangers…'_ Was what in Jondum's thought while he's trying to maintain straight face and trying to decide whether to part the assault rifle to them or not.

Perhaps he was thinking too much, as Eve have to placed her hand on his shoulder just to get his attention, once he looked at her, she suggest flatly "Give them the gun – specifically assault rifle…"

"What?"

Eve gave him a deadpan look as she reasoned with him "You're not planning to shoot those frenzied civilian do you, then why you hold on to something that'll be useless in the task ahead?"

That got the message across; that the colonists here fear that SPECTRE will just shoot his way to his objective even if most opposition will be colonists possessed by… something. And thus, Jondum decided to hand the weapon to one of the middle-aged man, who expertly checked the weapon while pointing it away from the crowd, before he gave the SPECTRE a satisfied nod.

Yet, before Jondum could walk to the front door, Eve's hand stopped him and she motioned toward the stairs.

"We'll get out from the second floor… so to not draw unwanted attention…" was her reason. But it left the Salarian SPECTRE with even more question – namely how can they climb down without getting spotted by the infected first?

Jondum has to take back his question earlier; it seems that coming to second floor was a good idea after all, as it let him see that the outbreak was deliberate and not something that occur naturally.

The evidence was the behavior of the infected; they may shambled around aimlessly at the moment due to there're no targets – namely the non-infected – to attack, but they seem to hit invisible wall at the edge of village and turned back, every single time, as if forming a protective circle around something.

And from this vantage point with help from his Omni-Tool for calculation and mapping, Jondum could pinpoint the center of this 'invisible radius' to be the market square, which made the Sanctuary folks even more suspicious.

Once he confirmed his finding to Eve and her family that standing nearby, she nodded in acknowledgment, before she turned toward one of the closest building – which is about two dozen meters away and tell him what she was planning "We'll jump on the rooftops to the market square, since most of them don't have easy access from the ground or even from the building themselves, we should encounter minimal oppositions." Then she adds as an afterthought "Unless those infected are capable of using guns and notice us when we jump."

Jondum was about to ask what she meant by 'jump' until the masked butler wordlessly picked him up – bridal style - before he could react and walked alongside others and lining up at the edge of the roof in direction of the center of village.

Noticing his struggle to break free, Eve calmly spoke to the SPECTRE with serious face "please hold tight inspector, we're about to head out."

He did as she asked, as he was also curious what she had in mind. Once the butler's grip is secured; Eve, Oberon, Ophelia and Anchor simultaneously bent down a little… and then jumped in unison…

The SPECTRE feels the rush of air splashing on his face as his eyes went wide looking at the ground passing below while he and his mysterious company sailed through the air. The feeling ends a few seconds later when they soundlessly touched down on another shelter's rooftop dozens of meters away!

The grip of steel holding the SPECTRE still not loosens as they ran across the roof and leap over small gap between buildings one after another passing through streets, lawns and low ground sprawling with infected people shambling like zombie without any of them aware of their presence.

After getting past initial surprise, Jondum carefully observed these people. Being in close contact to the man who was carrying him like this made him realized some minor things which untrained eyes of civilians will miss; like the fact that there're no movements of the butler's ribcage to indicate his breathing, or the sense like he's touching metal instead of organic arms. Not to mention the black-haired maid with those unnerving yellow eyes that's… fake…, all lead to some disturbing information about their true nature.

The SPECTRE suddenly shook his head; he's making quite an outrageous assumption here, not to mention that these people has rather mundane but useful abilities and willing to help him solving this epidemic, if anything, he'll hold his suspicion for now.

His musing was abruptly come to a halt when he no longer felt air rushing through his face and the butler ceremonially dropped him flat on the ground before the man himself dropped down next to him. Taking cue, Jondum bit down his complaint and roll over, making himself as scarce and low to the ground as possible before crawling toward the edge of the roof, while absent-mindedly noting that Eve, Ophelia and Anchor also did the same.

From their vantage point; Jondum see that the market square was in front of them – still sprawling with all the infected people. When glanced over to his objective – he saw a few dozen bodies littered on the ground, many of them civilians, gunned down by those dead merc / PMCs from Sanctuary who were now a bloody mess on the ground around their precious truck.

Jondum glanced worriedly at the sole 'kid' of the group; as this's not a sight that someone her age should see, but he was surprise that Anchor only displayed minor discomfort judging from her face, as well as the rest of this family.

Normally The SPECTRE wouldn't delved on it as much considering how dangerous it is to live in the Terminus System, but after aforementioned observations, he couldn't help but filed this for questioning later.

"So, we climb down to the truck quietly?" This's a more urgent question which left Jondum's mouth.

The maid – Jondum was quite certain now that she's a robot – glared at him in what presumed to be annoyance toward his obvious statement, but the head of this strange family looks concerned while looking at him once in a while, her golden eyes – while seem fake when looked at this close – narrowed down a bit before she replies "Inspector, I have a favor to ask you…"

Blinking his large eyes, Jondum asks professionally "What is it?"

"Can you please keep our abilities you're going to witness a secret, either from whatever authority you worked for, or from everyone else, until I allow you to?"

Jondum nodded, to which Eve turned to spoke with the maid and butler in hush tone "Keep watch on the street and alert us if these 'Sanctuary mercenary' has back up."

Once that was out of the way; she nodded at the only child in the group before both of them approach Jondum. And – instead of bridal carry which Oberon helped him get here earlier – they stood at both sides and lift the Salarian up around his waist – which done largely due to their size difference [3] before approach the edge of the roof - again.

Despite already fly over the ground for quite a while to get here, Jondum feel tense at the sight before him while on the brink of falling over, because it's about fifty meters from here to the truck – not the dozen meters at most like when they jumped across the streets.

Eve noticed the nervousness of the inspector and thus she gives him assuring smile while stating "I and Anchor can get you there, inspector, but it's up to you to incapacitate anyone trapped inside that truck…" she bobbed her head toward the vehicle in question before ask as if to confirm "you said one of them was trapped inside no?"

Gulping, Jondum replies "Positive, from what I eavesdropped their chats." Then he padded the sidearm in the holster on his waist as assurance "…I can do human 'Quick Draw'."

The white haired woman nodded and turned to Anchor, the two locked eyes for a moment before they jumped into the air – taking Jondum with them, and to his astonishment, they gently glided over the square with no detectable technology or even a speck of Eezo discharge!

He recovered quickly as they approached the truck, gun slipped into his hand just before they land on the roof quietly. The mother and daughter duo let go of him and kneel down – prompting him to do the same to not attract attention of the infected.

It doesn't take long to find a hatch to get inside, as it was practically required to service the satellite dish mounted on top of the truck, but the problem was it sealed shut from the inside…

Big problem for anyone ill-equipped for the kind of mission SPECTRE regularly find themselves in… but Jondum is the SPECTRE, and so this's child's play for him.

Jondum calmly brought up his Omni-Tool with his free hand without letting go of the gun, slowly working through the holographic interface that popped up near the hatch while hacking through the security. And soon enough, clicking sound was heard and the hatch hissed open.

However, neither Jondum nor Eve show any smile, as their objective wasn't even halfway through yet and there still a potential hostile down below, not to mention that he probably noticed their presence already, and Jondum lacked any incapacitating weapon like flashbang, using explosive isn't an option as he need everything inside intact.

In this kind of situation; ruthless SPECTRE may shove the girl down to draw fire before he or she follow and catch the opponent off-guarded. But Jondum wasn't that kind of SPECTRE, and so he felt slightly put off when the little girl – barely preadolescent – offered to jump down first.

He was about to argue, but not fast enough as the child didn't wait for answer; her kneeling form glowed blue for a brief moment and suddenly vanished in thin air! And before the SPECTRE could even tried to look for her; he heard a yell coming out of the hatch followed by a sound of something crashing inside... and then it fell silent.

Without wasting time, Jondum poked his head down, first thing that caught his eyes was holographic console displaying text in English 'Access Denied by Administrator' on one side, but he then noticed shadowy figure sprawling some feet away from the ladder and he slowly move down with gun trained at it, only to find – to his astonishment – Anchor standing next to the unconscious figure on the floor while waving at him to signal that everything is clear down there.

However as he prepare to scold the girl, Eve who was on the truck's roof suddenly appeared – standing - on an empty spot next to Anchor while looking at him with amused glint in her eyes.

The first question that came to mind of the SPECTRE after the shock wear off was _'How did she get down here?' _because his form still blocking the hatch at the moment, the roof didn't show any sign of damage, and contrary to popular belief; Biotic Charge cannot 'Teleport' a person anywhere they wanted to go without restriction.

It's true that Biotic user can manipulate mass of an object including themselves, but that mass did not simply go away, it just lighten down to the point that just a small exertion of force could move or propel it at great acceleration and speed, faster than naked eyes could tracks; thus, they cannot go through solid wall without blowing a hole through in the process.

"So this's what you wanted me to keep secret?" muttered Jondum as he jumped down and standing in front of Eve, his eyes twitched slightly at the sight of little girl in red kneeling and poking the man she rendered unconscious earlier with her finger as if checking for pulse – which in his opinion was worthless when she was using cybernetic hand for that.

Eve nodded at the SPECTRE, giving him a blank look "I'm afraid that's correct, Inspector…" without giving room for questioning, she explained it herself "As you can see, Inspector, we have the ability to phase through solid object. It was… inherited ability since I was born. I hope you understand that we wish for a normal life, not one filled with thrill and danger like government secret agent."

Jondum wondered for a moment if the two were result of some illegal experiments in secret lab somewhere in human territory or from terrorist infested Terminus, but he shoved that theory aside instantly; because no Mass Effect physiology and knowledge could explain the feat this mother - daughter duo capable of at all…

And that left him one theory – the most outlandish one at that! But suddenly, Eve confirmed his suspicion herself as if she know what he was thinking "I'm not human, inspector… neither did Anchor, Oberon and Ophelia."

Jondum couldn't say that he's surprised, especially that maid – which he now knows as Ophelia (that's common name for human female if he remember correctly) who despite her disguises still feel very wrong. But as he looked at the two supposed _'Non-human who looked like human'_ in front of him carefully, he still couldn't wrap his head around that statement; after all, they looked like some human who had their appendages replaced with cybernetic…

Something in the SPECTRE's mind clicked at that moment and he blurted out "You're synthetic?"

Sure; he expected that they may be new species never before seen in the galaxy due to their identical physical appearance to human, but the idea that they're synthetic never crossed his mind at all – until now.

"Sharp as expected of an inspector Mister…" Eve admitted in low voice, the glint in her eyes seems… amused for some reason as she leaned forward while looking up at SPECTRE "…but let me correct you before you make false accusation; System Alliance didn't create me."

Jondum briefly imagine Turian Councilor – Sparatus - yelling _"Liar!"_ at the statement while threaten human ambassador with assortment of threats to find out where the human hid their _'robot factory',_ and then quickly brought his mind to the present and assess her claim along with what little evidences he had.

Ultimately, he concluded that with abilities that defy all current knowledge of spacefaring species; she wasn't lying. But just like all his conversations with her before; this also open more questions than answer.

And then a loud painful groan from the man on the ground reminds him of why he came here in the first place…

The SPECTRE didn't waste time, with Anchor giving him a nod and handing a pistol – seized from the man – to him, he know that it's time to find out what drove those poor civilians to madness.

He decided that he could trust these… synthetics… for now - if not because their actions so far showed that really cared for innocent civilians here, then because they're programmed to help civilians. (Though he leaned toward the former) and are docile to a certain extent.

Now, it's time to get some information…

* * *

As the consciousness returned to the PMC with a pain on his head, his eyes glancing around the dimly lit place he was in, blinking away red liquid that covered his left eye in the process and confirmed that he's still inside the safety of armored truck… and not outside…

The man, despite being what effectively a mercenary shuddered when he remember the scream he heard over the communication when his boss and everyone else was torn to shred by those people who went crazy the moment the truck begun operating remotely via signal from Sanctuary. This's not something in today's schedule visit and it caught everyone off-guarded and get them all slaughtered. And it was brutal, savage beyond belief.

'_Is this what those eggheads in Sanctuary are working on?'_

Before he could ponder further as to why he suddenly get hit in the head the moment he come to the back to investigate the opened hatch, he noticed that his arms and legs were tied up behind his back, and he's not alone…

"You surely take your time, Mister Mercenary…"

A sarcastic voice of a woman called up from behind him, yet he couldn't muster any strength to turn and see who she was, and before he could say a word a familiar voice of certain alien entered his ears along with feeling of cold steel touching his nape – which he didn't have to guess at all about its identity.

"Let's cut the pleasantries. I want you to answer only when I ask. And do not try anything funny, we're all alone in here. If you understand, nod once…"

The PMC nodded once, which seems to satisfy the inspector-turn-interrogator as he pulled the gun away from the man's neck, but he's quite sure that it still pointing at him.

"State your name, rank, and position."

The PMC felt that that this inspector was the 'by the book' type, but since said inspector is the one with the gun, and there're others people here too, he had little choice but to comply.

"Robert Reed, Private of Knife squad, CAT6…"

Slowly, the slim, long hand of Salarian grabbed Robert by his collar and pulled him up to sitting position, letting the PMC see his captors for the first time; in front of him was the inspector his boss met earlier today, behind him to the right was white haired woman in white dress that's too archaic, and the last one was a girl in red frilly red and white dress – Gothic Lolita, as one of the porn his mate in squad showing to him time to time called it. He knows the two of them; volunteers from other planets flocking to this place when they cried for help.

His train of thought brought to a halt when the Salarian spoke up again, doubt clearly in his every word and even in his large eyes staring down at Robert "You're not in uniform of CAT6, neither did your units out there…" he gestured a bit toward the wall, where corpses littered outside.

Robert shrugged and replies honestly "The employer didn't want us to scare civies –some here know the reputation of CAT6 cuz they are former Alliance Soldiers. So they give us this joke of armor." Then he muttered sadly "…it'd have save 'em if we were allowed to wear our own."

"I see…" The inspector nodded, then his eyes narrowed down "…now getting to the main topic, what's happening here? Do not try to hide your involvement, I've a record…"

And true enough, The Salarian replay the conversation – one before Robert's squad mates met their demise just a few feet away from where they are, separated by wall of composite metal. Once the recording ended, the interrogation resume "So, what do you say about it Mr. Robert?"

Robert sighed, knowing that it'd come to this, and now he's facing a dilemma; letting secret of his employer out or they all stuck here and starve to death. He's no coward, but he's no fanatic who'd rather die than betraying their comrades either.

The PMC's face betrayed him, as Jondum saw it and now pointing pistol at him again "Should I remind you, Mr. Robert; that we're going to stuck here for a long time."

The man gritted his teeth, before resigned "Destroy the receiver and transmitter on top of the truck…" he nodded his head to the ceiling "…that should do the trick; the Sanctuary Big Boss was using that to remotely control everything in this truck right now."

The white hair woman then spoke with tint of interest "So that's why you cannot open the hatch to do it yourself?"

"Yes." Robert couldn't help but retorts "Else why my buddies have to die out there? They can't reach it, we've got no grenades, no one is a damn Biotic and there's no ladder on the outside."

Surprisingly, despite being the one who hold him captive, the woman chose to apologize politely – way too polite for someone who very likely went through hell out there to get here "Sorry that I doubt the truth of your word then, Mr. Robert."

Without further ado; the woman in white glowed blue and – to Robert's shock - whisked out of existence right before his eyes!

A sound of metal breaking up can be heard coming from the rooftop, glowing holographic console opposite of the PMC – which earlier still displaying text _'Access Denied by Administrator'_ now changed to _'Error; Equipment Damage!'_

Suddenly, scream of pain echoed from outside made Jondum glared at the PMC and demand answer angrily "What was that?"

Robert nearly jumped – just that his limbs being tied prevented him from doing so – while exclaimed loudly "I don't know!"

Before either could've exchange any more words, the screams died down as abruptly as it came, and when Jondum about to inquire, a blue glow signifying from behind him signified that Eve has returned.

"The people outside clutched their head the moment I broke the transmitter, and then all of them fall unconscious." Eve explained what she saw and then immediately elaborate "They're still alive; just unconscious at the moment."

"I see…" the SPECTRE breathed a sigh of relieve at the news "Will there be any danger?"

Eve shook her head "Oberon and Ophelia told me that they see no one coming to the village, but they see smoke rising on the horizon - the direction of Sanctuary headquarter."

All eyes in the truck fell upon the last PMC; Robert averted their glares and said "All right, All right, I'll tell you! Stop staring at me already! We're in this together now!"

A raise eyebrow from the white haired woman later, she spoke up "Since when you cut tie with your employer? Though you're being truthful earlier, doesn't mean we'll trust you…" she paused a bit, frown marred her face "…after all, those people out there still suffered."

Robert sighed "I'm not the most tech-savvy guy out there, lady. I'm just a grunt, remember?"

"But you know what caused the civilians to go berserk…"

Counter-argument came from the SPECTRE, reminding him that they're not that forgetful about what transpired.

Robert could only leaned himself against the wall and spill out what he know when that woman in white glared dangerously at him, while the SPECTRE stared silently and pulled out a pocket knife to begin twirling it between his spindly fingers threateningly "Okay! Okay! I'll talk!"

The SPECTRE just tilted his head a little and whispered "Talk, then…"

The PMC mumbled "I don't know much, we're contracted by Sanctuary group a year ago to oversee the headquarter, all went well, some pirate attack or two, but we drove them off with no casualties, I thought with this achievements under our belt, our squad stationed here could get off a big pay after our contract end in the next year."

Robert's stared at the ceiling dreamily, clearly that was the memories of his past glory, but then his mood turn sour at his next word "About two months ago they told us to escort this truck to this village and back on daily basis…"

Eve and Anchor looked at each other but not saying anything while the SPECTRE interrogate further "This truck has some function in it?"

Robert nodded "Yes, it has one canister, in the back of the truck…" he motioned his head in its direction – which took Jondum just quick glance to confirm its presence "…once we in position – this very place, we'll stand guard around the truck. Our employer told us to always wear fully sealed hardsuit when come here..."

As much as Jondum wanted to inspect the canister in question, he know better than doing that; after all, by this point, there's nothing inside the thing anymore, so the better information source would be asking this CAT6 instead "So you don't know the content inside it?"

The CAT6 snorts "They told us only that it's not harmful to human, and should the research bore fruit…"

At this point, the Salarian SPECTRE interrupted him with question "Wait, Research? I was told by the local that Sanctuary is just a resort for rich people…" And to his side, both Anchor and Eve nodded simultaneously, confirming that they hear the same thing from the local as well.

Robert laughed at that "It seems our employer did a good job keeping local in the dark then." Then he shook his head when Jondum trained his eyes on him "…I don't know what those eggheads are cooking up, but I assure you, Sanctuary's not simple resort, there's a whole bunch of research facility in there, just that no tourists ever find out."

Jondum nodded slightly, taking in information, but the CAT6 wasn't finished yet "Back to that accursed canister, those eggheads were the one who filled it every time we return to Sanctuary. We park the truck here and contact Sanctuary, and they'll remotely open the sprayer on top, let content loose while sit back in those labs."

Golden eyes showed dangerous glint as Eve draw up her conclusion "They're behind this epidemic, I presume?"

"It seems so…" The SPRCTRE concurred with her statement.

Robert continues his revelation "As for the transmitter on top of us, it's for transmitting signal received from Sanctuary; they said that in theory it should have effect on those who inhaled the chemical they spread. But they didn't tell us that it'll turn them into god damn berserkers that murder everyone that's not infected with the same thing!"

The CAT6 lashed out at the end, venom in his every word, bitter and angry at the death of his comrades, something that Jondum and Eve could sympathize with.

Then, it was Anchor who asks million credit question; her red eyes glared at the man while her 'prosthetic arm' clenched "Is there a cure to remove it from the townsfolk?"

Robert shrugged at the questioning looks everyone gave him "If there's one; then it'd be in the Sanctuary lab, cuz they still have us here wear hardsuit, remember?"

Eve closed her eyes with her hand touching the crystal on her forehead for a moment, before she turned to speak with the SPECTRE "Oberon saw flashes of explosion coming from Sanctuary. It seems they're in trouble."

Anchor turned to her 'Mother' and voice her concern "What about other civilians outside? We cannot leave them like that mother."

"We need the cure or at least know what we're dealing with, unless you want them to become frenzy again." Jondum reasoned, his Omni-Tool lit up, showing the clock "We still have about 8 hours before nightfall. [4] Hope that we're not too late."

The synthetic mother and daughter looked at each other, seemingly conversing without voice, until the petite brunette in red nodded and the white one turn to inform SPECTRE of their thought "You're right, inspector, it seems we have to pay Sanctuary a visit… I'll contact those inside the Clinic to take them to bomb shelter – provide that they're not afraid."

Her Omni-Tool flashed out as she typed away and communicating with the other survivors, while Anchor addresses the SPECTRE while glaring at CAT6 "We should take Mister Robert with us."

"Hey, wait a sec…" The PMC quickly disagree with the kid "…sure I and my squad didn't sign up for this slaughter, but if I return with you lots then they're going to hunt me down for being a traitor!"

"Or should we leave you here and let the local deal with you then?" Eve – who just received reply from the survivors at Clinic that they're coming to pick up civilians – turn around and shot the CAT6 a cold smile that send shiver down his spine "I'm certain that they'll give you a 'warm welcome' to you for shooting down civilians."

Robert realized now that he stuck between a rock and a hard place; even if they said that Sanctuary is under attack by unknown force and that they're going to get in there to find the cure; they're still clearly outnumber; a single SPECTRE plus one kid and her mother? This's suicide!

Yet the alternative wasn't much better; the people here would tear him apart, even if he had no hand in the people's death outside the truck, but he's still their associate.

After thinking things over; Robert can only snorts "It's not like you give me much choices isn't it. Fine, I'll guide you there. Just untie me then."

Jondum shook his head "No can do, I don't trust mercenary."

And then Eve adds with a blank look on her face - but the hand covering her mouth spoke a different story "I think I have a suggestion. Mister Jondum…" she glanced at the SPECTRE who blinked his eyes at her questioningly, before she elaborates her plan.

Once she finished, Robert know that he's not going to like what that girl suggest, not one bit!

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] In my opinion; Thermal Clips are just an excuse to introduce 'challenge' into the gameplay, it's a step backward in technological advancement no matter how you look at it. It's as if they forget about cooling systems we used in machine gun / auto cannon in present day. Seriously, if Mass Effect verse could micronize the gun to fire metal pallet the size of sand grain which effectively made it has infinite ammo in any engagement, why not micronizing the cooling system too? I doubt that they won't have it installed in the guns even in Mass Effect 1 given how much heat our present day machine gun generated.**

**[2] A justification - of sort, for the certain event that soon to be unfold, because let's face it, how can dozens of Special Operatives equipped for Scouting Mission hold up against (implied) entire army with no plan but _'Attack, Attack, Attack'_ until Shepard complete his/her objective at all?**

**[3] I saw one picture comparing height of characters in Mass Effect; I used Mordin as base for Salarian and in that picture Kaidan and Shepard (around 6' 3" give or takes a few) was shorter than Mordin. While Eve's height was about 5' 5" – shorter than Shepard, and Anchor was about a head shorter than Eve - at about 4'6", so it comes to this.**

**[4] Horizon has 37 hours per day, it's in Official Codex. Afternoon to nightfall mean roughly 9 hours.**

**I Hope that Jondum Bau isn't out of character here; it was my interpretation from his attitude toward Kasumi and Shepard, especially when he let Kasumi go by pretending that she died in that blast at the end of his quest implied that he's closer to 'Paragon' than 'Renegade'.**

**I may have use the word 'Infected' here a bit too much, perhaps something from Left4Dead?**

**Rate and Review as you see fit. See you next chapter... When it finished...**


	10. Chapter 10

**This Chapter is self-Beta, sorry if there're grammar errors.**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Family reunion**

Far away from the Horizon main colony and its small villages of an upstart agricultural colony stood a large building complex in the middle of grassland, a single glass towers thirty stories tall pierced the sky overlooking rows of pristine white buildings and archway in-between which lead to its own private starport with white landing pads and guiding beacon a hundred meters away. Green of plant life dotted the rooftop of buildings providing visitors a pleasant sight as they enter one the most luxurious recreation facilities in the most backwater planet in the Terminus system.

Yet it also the most protected place on this planet; dozen, if not hundreds of GARDIAN turrets were hidden at almost every nooks and cranny not used for recreation comfort, Private Military Contractor – the CAT6 whose name infamous for being comprised only of former System Alliance soldiers – in charge of security throughout the facility. Security is protocol strict to prevent sabotage and infiltration, all of this made it not hard to see why this reputation was well-founded.

But now, all sign of that glory was gone, replaced with hellish picture straight from nightmare with craters littered the ground leading toward the tower. Many buildings are on fire, some has holes blew into, windows shattered and black sooth charred around where explosives hit, rubbles and debris on every inch of the place especially the once-defensive turrets that stood as stalwart. Vehicles wreckages – from simple air cars to trucks and shuttles littered this landscape of hell, some are still burning, some crashed into the building, and some exploded into bits of metal and burning skeletal frame scattered around. Parts and limbs of humanoid being which once belongs to either driver or passengers, not to mention corpses, blood and organs of civilian and armed men alike also scattered throughout.

And in the distance, sound and flashes of gunfire and explosion could be seen coming out of the grand tower; a sign of the still ongoing battle between occupants and the invaders.

Jondum lowered his binocular after observing the state of Sanctuary for full five minutes from the small agricultural garden a kilometer away from the main structure before making his way toward the truck they hijacked from the village earlier.

Looking at the vehicle, the SPECTRE could see the seemingly robotic butler Oberon at the driver seat, facial expression hidden under the mask (perhaps that's his actual face, but Jondum wasn't sure), at the side of the vehicle were mother and daughter pair – or what the two synthetics viewed each other as - standing still; the white one crossed arms over her chest with her eyes closed as if contemplating something while the petite brunette in red cover one side of her mechanical ear with hand – as if trying to listening to the sound that Salarian couldn't hear.

Jondum approached the pair, just in time to hear the smaller one's comment

"Anchor hope that Oriana is okay."

Seemingly innocent comment, yet when it came from the synthetic, especially one so life-like, made Jondum's mind wonder; just what kind of ignorant civilization could've conceived such advanced and sophisticated Artificial intelligence, and for what purpose?

After all, synthetics were created to serves the creator, sentience was unnecessary, developed only when the creators pushed the demand for the synthetic to do complex task a bit too far and the machine grew too smart – Quarian and Geth were the example of such occurrence.

Perhaps he was taking Eve's word a bit too literal; perhaps they're not synthetic at all but somehow make to think so?

As the SPECTRE's inwardly mused; the two 'synthetic' seem oblivious to his thought as they continue their conversation; this time Eve answers her daughter.

"We wouldn't know until we get to the bottom of this mystery Anchor. But I also hope that your friend is safe as well."

Anchor nodded before they noticed the arrival of the SPECTRE. Turning to the Salarian, the smallest one asks – rather timidly, yet also with a hint of worry "Is there anything new, Mister?"

Jondum decided to inform them "Judging from shuttles wreckages, it seems the assailant was Cerberus…" then he mutters to self "…this's alarming, terrorist organization has enough manpower to field such force…"

However, his word was lost upon looking at the smaller synthetic; her red eyes narrowed down, her face show both worry and anger - defying the wisdom of current galactic community, that synthetic doesn't feel emotion.

Before he could form a proper word, Eve spoke up "We ran into this 'Cerberus' a few days prior to coming here, inspector."

…Even this 'synthetic' seemingly emotionless voice was dripped with venom. Jondum decided to not ask them for details; as it already clear enough that there're no love lost with the organization. And beside; since this organization is a threat to galactic community at large, knowing that they share the same enemy made trusting them feels a bit easier on his mind.

But suddenly, Eve narrowed her eyes while glaring toward the Sanctuary in the distance, her face marred with frown as she seemingly looking at something Jondum couldn't see without binocular. And thus instead of wasting time looking around for the thing; he asks the synthetic "What do you see?"

"A few shuttles that bear no mark are descending on the far side of the facility..." Eve replied, still not taking eyes off of whatever she's looking at "…I think I see Batarian soldiers coming out of those shuttles, no mark, no emblem that I could see. And the Sanctuary's anti-air defenses are still operational; some of the shuttles getting shot down as we speak." She added.

Jondum feels that this operation is going downhill very quickly; it's not just Cerberus attacking Sanctuary, setting off whatever experiments they're doing down there resulting in the guinea pig that's the villagers in quarantined town driven to frenzy, now it seems some pirates has noticed the blood and join the fun…

"_-Bzzt, what's going on out there? You mention pirate attack?-"_

Sound of captured CAT6 rang out from Jondum's Omni-Tool reminding him of another 'asset' that he expected to get them inside Sanctuary. He ignored the voice and raised his binocular to scan the direction where Eve detected the pirate.

Several minutes passed as Jondum suppressed the urge to curse up storm while ordered the two synthetics "We have to move fast if we're to recover anything to save the colonists. The fighting between pirate, Cerberus and Sanctuary should give enough distraction for us."

'_Perhaps they outing themselves as synthetic because I won't let them come along if I still assume they're civilian, or because to make me comfortable of ordering them around too?'_ Jondum mused as all of them rushed back into the truck and driving toward Sanctuary.

But no matter, having them around improved the odd for the SPECTRE greatly…

* * *

Soon enough, the truck came to a stop at the main entrance of the grand tower. Sound of gunfire still in the air, but faintly due to distance and obstructing landscape, which mean that the new arrival won't be in immediate danger yet. But Jondum won't put thing up to chance; they disembarked the vehicle and darted for the nearest chunk of debris - aircar wreckage - for cover in seconds, leaving almost no trails or signs that someone just came out of the truck…

"Hey release me! You can't seriously leave me here!"

…not to mention the distraction in form of a faint noise coming out of the truck once in a while, though too low for anyone but the sharpest ears to pick up.

Eve shot the truck a sympathy look as if she could pierce its metal hull and look directly at the man inside; but given she's a synthetic – or an extremely advanced alien that looked like human – Jondum could never be certain. Her child seems to look the same; worrying about a merc who signed up knowing the risk.

At least the two set their priority straight; they tore their sight away from the truck after a fraction of second and the group begins moving – with Eve volunteer to take the point ahead the rest for scouting.

The robot maid – Ophelia quickly protested, her eyes glared at the smaller form of Eve all the time "Milady, you shouldn't risk yourself like that, I or Oberon can do it."

Eve held out her hand, stopping the maid, and stated in a matter of fact which leave no room for argument "And you know as well that I'm best suit for forward scout, with Anchor second in such task. While you two aren't."

Ophelia relented and back down while bowing slightly "Understood milady, please take care."

Soft chuckle escaped Eve's lip as her form shimmered and vanished right in front of Jondum's eyes!

His well-trained eyes fell upon the floor immediately, hoping to track the invisible synthetic via footsteps and footprints, his ears tuned out other sound trying to find any indication of her presence. But to his dismay, it was like she literally disappeared from the face of the planet, even when he sprang up Omni-Tool and used the most advanced scanner on the surrounding – it still unable to detect her.

A few moments of waiting behind cover later, Omni-Tool communication went up as Eve informed them_ "-The entrance is clear, the fighting seem to be on the back side of the facility, no functional security camera or sensor as far as I can see.-"_

It was only that brief moment that Jondum could detected the enigmatic synthetic via transmission coming from Eve's Omni-Tool, enough to confirm her location inside the main reception hall before vanished off his portable sensor again once the transmission ended.

Jondum didn't delved on it too much as he nodded at three other companions at his side and slowly working their way into the reception hall, pistol at the ready in his hands, the child-like synthetic seems slightly tense, while the two servants walking casually could be mistake them for inexperienced civilians – except that the maid's unnerving yellow eyes were telling a different story.

Not to mention that all three of them were so light on their feet that he almost couldn't hear their footstep at all despite they weren't made of flesh and blood, but given that the child – Anchor could glided through the air with no discernable equipment or Eezo discharge, it was already a clue that whatever material used to made her shouldn't be that heavy.

The SPECTRE stopped mulling over all the piling questions around these mysterious synthetics once he reached the reception hall, just a quick glance confirmed him that like the clearing outside – this place was also a battlefield; corpses, debris and wreckages as far as eyes can see with occasional explosion craters here and there, blood splattered on some surface adding to the ominousness of the scenery.

And on the far side opposite of the entrance was a gigantic blast door slid shut cutting them off from going inside; No wonder Eve told him that there's no security here, it seem that the Sanctuary's CAT6 has decided to abandon this place to concentrate their defense line inside the main tower.

That's what Jondum would do if he's the one in charge; concentrate their force, let two enemies fight each other and mop up the rest. After all, Cerberus were notorious for their hatred of non-human, and Batarian pirates were a constant torn in Humanity's side, he doubt they'd hesitate to kill each other as it is.

And if everything went well, they might not even need to fire a shot while making off with the cure, or some incriminating evidences before anyone know any wiser.

Of course, provided that he knows how to get inside the supposedly secret facility first - which to his dismay, it seem they have to fight their way inside should they couldn't locate any passageway other than through the main blast door.

But he's inspector for a reason, and thus Jondum decided to explore the wrecked reception, beginning with the still-functional computers to see if he could have it cough out some answers – even if it was far-fetched that anyone would keep incriminating information locked up in public place like this.

It became apparent soon enough that his method wasn't going to work; he shook his head as he closed final computer at the workstation. Jondum then turned to speak to his unlikely allies when he noticed that Anchor, Oberon and Ophelia didn't follow him and is nowhere to be seen.

'_How could they escape my notice?'_ was what the Salarian thought, but when looking back at the counter he realized that three of them haven't moved from the spot near the reception desk at all, as if awaiting for their name to be called by the reception. And the fourth; well, she still haven't show up since she cloaked and do a forward scouting, and he still couldn't locate her.

Jondum walked closer to Oberon and Ophelia who stood guard around Anchor. The little girl knelt down with her armored hand touching the floor, eyes closed, seemingly oblivious to the world around her as blue holographic rings with intricate pattern unlike those generated by Omni-Tool spinning lazily around her.

The SPECTRE couldn't help but wonder what those holographic rings was for consider he saw the girl used Omni-Tool on her wrist before thus this couldn't be the same thing. But then his danger sense kicked in when he feel something creeping up from behind him while the Maid and the Butler were looking the other way so he know that he's unlikely to get help in time, Thus he spun around, pistol in his hand and prepare to face whoever behind…

Only for his pistol to be grabbed by Eve's dedicated hand which intercepted it before it could aim at her properly.

"Oh my, your sense is sharp…" Eve spoke up in her almost emotionless tone, while her eyebrows arched up a little to indicate that she was amused, but then her eyes narrowed down and explain what she finds "There's firefight between Cerberus and pirates on the other side of that blast door, soundproof." She added as an afterthought in case he wonders why he didn't hear anything.

Jondum pushed the thought that a synthetic could get a jump on him aside and analyzing the situation "So the CAT6 withdrawn and let these two terrorists fight each other."

"Indeed…" Eve agreed, but then she shook her head "…there also lots of unarmed guests there; mostly injured, dying or already dead, it seems they couldn't evacuate in time."

Anchor confirmed it solemnly from behind Jondum, make him turn back to look at her "Anchor sensed them too, mother…"

The petite synthetic stood up shakily, blue rings around her vanished. Her face expressed discomfort as she continues "it's… hard, knowing they're there, but we cannot help them."

Eve smiled mischievously "However, we have to go through that blast door anyway."

Jondum looked at her questioningly, and she noticed him too, but her words, while less cryptic, it still cryptic "You sensed it too right Anchor? There're humans in the lower level of this area - underground."

Anchor nodded almost immediately before clarify a bit more "There's thick layer of rocks between us and them, there's no access point in this area, but there's one hollowed shaft beyond the blast door where Anchor sense other people."

Eve nodded, before turning toward Jondum "Inspector, would it be alright for us to kill some terrorists and pirates on the other side?"

'_How considerate of her…'_ Jondum mused inside his head as Eve staring blankly at him _'Perhaps synthetics are not that dangerous to organics as we once thought.'_

Thinking it over, the SPECTRE answers the synthetic's question "I doubt pirates and Cerberus will give us the same courtesy from what we've seen. But spare them if you could, we need to adhere to the law regardless."

Eve nodded slowly, as if she approved of him somewhat - Jondum wasn't sure – before the two of them approached the blast door, and then, just like earlier, faint blue glow enveloped them and just one eye blink later, they're not there anymore.

* * *

Balak couldn't help but being giddy as his shots downed another Cerberus bastard in the head from across the garden hall before he duck down to let his gun cool off while shots pinged against the fountain that he used for cover.

Glancing to the side, he confirmed the whereabouts of his Batarian subordinates; they're moving from cover to cover to flank the Cerberus, some of his men got cut down by hails of gunfire, but the communication chatter made it obvious that his side have the advantage as the Cerberus gradually yielding their ground by the minute.

Normally he won't fight on the frontline like this, but this operation truly deserves his presence; to make sure it went off without a hitch, seeing those human scums suffer in the name of Hegemony by his own four eyes is a plus.

Understandable; as his group is now assaulting the most fortified place in this area of Terminus that reputed for beaten back every pirate attacks since its founding, and it showed by the current situation; even though weakened by Cerberus's attack, their chain of command still intact and organized a retreat, to have him and his pirate fight these Cerberus instead.

Of course, there still backwater human settlement a few clicks away which is much, much easier to raid and acquire slaves, but the impact toward System Alliance was minimal as they denied aids and responsibility in this region and will act as if this raid never happened, and Balak's **true objective** is anything but acquiring human slaves for the Hegemony.

And of course, Cerberus' men composed solely of human, so Balak didn't complain much; he still dishing out pain to their arch-nemesis species anyway.

'_-This's 3__rd__ squad, enemy suppressed, advancing to… what the?...zzzzz-'_

Balak's returned to reality the moment report from his subordinates abruptly cut short before barking order into his own communication device "Squad 3, what's the situation?"

Nothing come up, only sound of gunfire and panicked yelling from Cerberus men in the distance out of his men's reach signifying that some third party joined the fray, though with so many debris and wreckages around the place, even when Balak poked his head out of cover to look, he could barely see anything other than flashes of gunfire and Biotic.

'_So Sanctuary guard finally come to mop us all up…' _Balak thought disdainfully at the dirty tactic the local employed, but who he was to judge when he'd be doing the same thing when putting in their shoes.

Still, it won't do if the rest his men get caught unprepared by this – even if they should noticed it by now, he's their boss for a reason and thus he instructs them through Omni-Tool communication "It seems our cowardly host finally returned! Everyone, prepare to welcome them and don't let your guard down!"

However, it was too late for him to warn them; panicked yelling and gunfire now resounded over his communication network as his subordinates trying and failing to fight off the newcomers – which the victims couldn't get a good look at before they were swiftly taken out.

All this made the Batarian General nervous; whoever fighting both his men and Cerberus out there was good – way too good and way too dangerous… as he still unable to get a good idea of what they're up against yet despite almost everyone in his group were hand-picked by the General Balak himself thus he know that they're far away from incompetent goons as much as possible.

So, why are they dropping like flies at the moment? The pace also suggested this enemy has quite a bit of manpower considering the distance between each squad that's under attack - that or said enemy can move almost 50 meters in less than a second while ignoring every walls, wreckages, water pool and all sort of obstacles between him and Balak's team, because the last time he checked; Biotic Charge do not let users ignore solid object standing in their way!

Nevertheless, both Cerberus' and Balak's army continuously dwindling against this mysterious _'secret weapon'_ that the Sanctuary supposedly unleashed and it made the Batarian General more nervous by the minute; and once his hundred-strong army reduced to half that number, he began to convinced that it was indeed some sort of mad experiment bred from whatever they're doing in this place – as if those crazed human civilians he and his team has to killed along the way to this hall weren't enough to convince him that this place was more than meet the eye already.

Setting the matter of potential slaves already subjected to mad experiment that turned them into frenzied berserker that tried to kill his men aside, Balak focused on the situation at hand and decided on the best course of action "Fall back and regroup at point zero and fortify my position! Be careful for ambush!"

"Sir, yes sir!" echoed out of Balak's communicator confirmed the execution of his order, and soon enough – one of his squad approached his position, their eyes keep a lookout of enemy none of their comrades have seen with rear guard lagging behind.

When Balak thought about it; now everything became stranger; sound of fighting in immediate area ceased, replaced by a siren blaring from the main tower in the distance and occasional spark from electrical wires severed by collateral damage nearby. It's way too quiet…

Four eyes widen in alarm as he said "They're following you back here! Get ready men!"

Yet his realization came just a little too late…

Suddenly, the rearguards of the approaching squad suddenly flew into a wall and hit it so hard it formed a small crater, alerting everyone to the assailants' presence. The rest of the squad brought their guns to bear and fired on said assailant – now identified as two blurs, one red and one white which began approaching them after it dispatched their rear guard.

Despite their marksmanship; bullets keep plinking off the ground kicking up dust behind the attackers, and in seconds, it was upon them… and that squad started getting fling around like a ragdoll when they tried their hardest to fight them off…

The only thing good that came out of it was that Balak and elite troops around him was that they finally catch a glimpse of this mysterious enemy and it both baffled and anger him that all his squad out there fallen to just _two unarmed human girls_!

The white one gracefully and nimbly weaved around, dodging almost every bullets thrown her way – something that shouldn't be possible consider that said bullets were travelling at a tiny fraction of light speed – too fast to see, then she closed in and take out his men with a single palm strike to the chest – which for some reason also lethal enough to dropped them like a puppet with their strings cut despite everyone was wearing powered armor!

The red one, on the other hand, was very small, and like any annoying brat, her movement was a lot less graceful and less skilled at dodging bullets, but she still equally deadly as any shots that managed to land seems to harmlessly passed through her body, and just like the woman in white, her palm strike to the chest will drop anyone got hit by it without fail – even though her size means she has to jump to deliver it.

Of course, Balak's not in a cinema watching action movie; this's a raid! Thus he barked to his elite troops "What are you waiting for? Shoot those bitches down!"

Balak's men glanced at each other nervously – which is strange consider their upbringing, before one of them bring out the issue "Commander, we'll hit our comrades if we do that."

Balak's four eyes twitched, before he leveled his gun on that troop threateningly "Their sacrifice will be for the Hegemony's future, so do yours duty soldier! Before all of us get cut down!"

It took them another moment glancing at other Batarian squad – now with only three members left standing – that they finally realized the gravity of situation, and so Balak's fifteen elite troops leveled their rifles at their own squad mate – that they predicted was the next target of the woman in white, and unleashed on him!

Caught by surprise and from behind, that Batarian never stood a chance as hails of leads destroyed his kinetic barrier in seconds and turned him into beehive, but the woman who's about to hit him also caught in it as well! Her form instantly filled with countless holes from head to toe as she tried to whirl around to confront Balak's team.

The woman's form vanished – not in form of blood and gore – leaving only blue glowing silhouette behind. And before Balak – who thought that the woman was dead, could order them to turn to the red one, sound of something smashing against flesh came from the side, and Balak barely avoided being hit by one of his troop flying into nearby concrete slab thanks to his reflex and instinct.

Balak's elite men froze for a second as their mind registered the threat they thought eliminated amidst their rank, but at the same time, the little brunette in red already finished the last of approaching Batarian squad and turned to them.

Before any of them could back away or do anything, the white woman – who somehow survived the bullet barrage and appeared in the middle of their gathering area – resumed the onslaught, while the girl in red took that as a sign to join the fray in form of red blur shot toward the Batarian pirates.

In seconds, all around Balak was his men getting flung left and right haplessly while he himself struggle to dodge and shoot the two assailants, but no matter how many shots he fired, he couldn't really hit them, as if they were just ghosts or specters that couldn't be harmed by solid object.

Of course, Balak tried to shoot them when they attacked his men – rationalizing that since those bitches could hit them means they have taken solid state at that time – but the timing window was so brief that by the time he squeezed the trigger, they'd be either already went after the next target, or turn intangible again.

'_What kind of monster are they?'_ Balak thought while spraying bullets from his rifle at the white blur that shot past him, seemingly oblivious to his attempt at her life while she dropped another of his men with a palm thrust to the chest and whisked away before he could get a bead on for tenth times since the fighting started.

But at that moment, Balak have to took a step to the side, barely avoided a palm strike delivered by the petite brunette in red. And as the girl overshoot him, Balak shot his hand forward, intended to grabbed her wrist and take her hostage…

Only for the girl to suddenly drop to the ground avoiding his grab, and it was Balak's turn that was overstretched with unbalanced footing, while the brunette kicked him in the stomach from below.

Balak doubled over from the force behind that little girl's kick as he was sent flying back and landed back-first on the ground. Losing rifle from his grip, the Commander of Batarian pirate tried to get up and look for his guns, but the only thing his four eyes find was a fast approaching silver armored greave filling up his vision!

But Balak hasn't done in yet, he rolled to the side, the armored greave clipped the side of his head, both hands shot forward and grabbed the girl by her foot before he pulled it. The brunette yelped in surprise as she lose balance and fell flat on the ground next to him.

Balak wasted no time, he quickly moved in to pin the girl down, figuring that should he hold one of them hostage it'd stop another's rampage and finally get the mission back on track.

Balak grabbed the girl by her throat, lifting her up while shouting to the woman in white – who just dispatched one of his last standing two minions a few dozen feet away "Stop right where you are, or this brat gonna get her neck crushed!"

Of course, his boast was no hyperbole; he was wearing powered armor that has strength augmentation, while the little girl in his grasp was wearing a pretty red dress - so did that woman in white, means he could easily do as he boast in no time at all.

Still, Balak couldn't help but irritated at these two; his elite troops got beat up by two unarmed little girls, and it's beyond humiliating.

As the last standing subordinate of his struggled back to stand beside him; that white woman stood where she dropped her last victim, her hands hidden inside those large sleeves while tilting her head slightly, watching them with bemused expression on her face.

Balak wanted to remind her who has the upper hand, but his sense tell him that this woman, or the child in his grip, didn't fear him at all despite the situation, and speaking of which, the child haven't struggle to get free at all since he get a hold of her.

As if she read his thought, the woman spoke up for the first time since their fight started.

"That's not a good idea you know; shooting your own people like that…"

Balak's four eyes blinked, he expected her to demand release of the supposedly child of hers, not this rabbles of how he treated his subordinates, after all, Hegemony Caste system dictated that he could do whatever he wanted! And as if this stupid two-eyed human could understand.

"And what about it?" Balak sneered at the white-haired woman, his grip tightens around the girl's slim neck, and he pulled a pistol to point at her head for good measure "They're my underling; I can do whatever I wanted with them! And so do you, unless you want this kid to get hurt."

The woman in white however didn't paid any attention to him, instead she spoke to the little girl in his grip "Anchor, take this as a lesson to never underestimate your opponents again okay?"

The girl in Balak's hand moved for the first time- albeit just a slight nod to acknowledge her 'mother', and somehow that made Balak's blood boils.

'_Did they have no common sense at all? How can they be so ignorant to the situation?'_

However, another part of his mind told him that there must be something wrong here.

The woman in white glanced upward, but before Balak could inquire what she was staring at, suddenly, he felt the hostage moved, and before his reflex could crush her, he found himself hurled through the air slamming down on concrete floor. The last thing his four eyes registered was a rapidly approaching fist and then everything went dark.

* * *

Anchor stood up, her eyes lingered briefly at the still form of Batarian pirate leader, before she jogged toward her mother, and together they went back to the blast door that still blocking access for their other companions to open it.

As Anchor using her Omni-Tool to access the door control, Eve – who has been silent for quite a while - spoke up "Anchor, don't take that slip up earlier too seriously all right? Gap in experience still a factor that no one can close in just few months."

The petite brunette's fingers continue tapping away at holographic tool on her wrist while she looked up to her mother "Anchor didn't… but…" she paused, looking at the calm - assuring smile from Eve before decided to continue "Anchor feel that Anchor has a lot to learn. And that Anchor was abusing Nasod abilities to get by too much."

Eve nodded at that self-assessment; after all, if one were to pay attention, they'll notice too that Anchor took a lot more direct hits than Eve during the fight – not that those hits were capable of harming her anyway – but it still a sign that Anchor relied too much on intangibility – the High Class Nasod's ability, to win this fight.

Though it has been said that _'All is fair in love and war'_, concealing one's true ability and deception still important, as enemy will never know how to properly counter them. For Eve who dodged almost everything thrown her way, it'll be really hard to see all the stray shots that went through her when she couldn't dodge in time. While Anchor - on the other hand - will have a hard time convincing anyone who saw her fight that she didn't phased through hails of bullets to get close.

Still, revealing it to Jondum earlier today could be seen as careless; but given the situation and alternative of wasting time, there's not much Eve could do, and while Eve doubt that he'll sell them out as long as they pose no threat to community he serves, she also knew that there's absolutely nothing to force them to testify the SPECTRE's report; she had no ties to humanity or any galactic civilization of this dimension, and while Anchor may hold some loves toward her birth mother's species, she's not stupid enough to not know of repercussion that will befell humanity if she chose her words wrongly – her tutelage under Eve since gaining physical body make sure of that.

But to be optimistic; using palm strike to deliver resonance shockwave to inner organs and knock person unconscious without visible harm on their skin will left experts of this galaxy scratching their head for years to come – perhaps never figure out how she could do it at all given how complacent in technological advancement they've becomes.

Small 'Click' entered Eve's sound receptor, breaking her out of her thought to stare at massive blast door that begins to creak, and slide away slowly, opening the path for Oberon, Ophelia and Jondum to came through.

While her retainers went straight to check Eve for injuries, the Salarian SPECTRE took time to survey the scene and collecting visible weapons dropped by all parties before turn to question the Empress "How many casualties?"

Eve glanced toward the wrecked hall and replies neutrally "Sixty men incapacitated, half from Cerberus, half pirate, four of them fatal." She paused before bobbing her head at the carnage that was once pristine hall "And we're too late to help any bystanders here."

Anchor who was standing beside her nods solemnly in agreement. Then her and Eve kneel down to the floor, blue holographic rings sprung out around them as they closed their eyes and sharpen other senses to pinpoint the exact location of hidden entrance.

Less than ten seconds; the mother and daughter stood up again and wordlessly lead everyone toward a rather large room dug deep into the wall few dozen meters to the side, which judging from the empty weapon racks, control panels with broken monitors and several dead CAT6 mercenaries among wreckages, should be a guard room or armory.

Salarian SPECTRE wasted no time going toward the security panel. Using his expertise; he quickly wormed his way into the data files stored in this local computer – or what's left of it, and from it, he watched the event leading to this catastrophe unfolded on the last working monitor.

Meanwhile, Eve asked Oberon to begin removing debris piling at the back side of the room while Ophelia and Anchor are guarding at the broken door – or more accurately, peeking out once in a while to check that there're no hostiles closing in on them.

As Jondum finished upload recording – a rather unpleasant recording of berserk, unarmed civilians fighting Cerberus in the hall and other important records - into his Omni-Tool, he turned to ask Eve "By the way, should we leave those pirates and Cerberus unconscious out there? They may pursue us when they regain consciousness."

"They'll be distraction…" Eve replied while kneeling down next to the section of the floor previously covered by debris "…their ships still in orbit have they not? I think that should they send reinforcement, they'll have to mop up here first. Assuming they didn't know about this secret passage, it'll take a while…"

With that said, Eve push her hand forward and turning it upward, then - as if an invisible hand pulling it – the floor bent upward, noise of metal shearing echo loudly in futile protest, before it was pulled out of its frame revealing the elevator shaft concealed below it.

While surprised at the sudden revelation of strange ability which resemble Biotic from the 'synthetic' woman, Jondum composed himself and answer her question "From the communication record, their ships has already withdraw one hour ago after they damaged each other during the fight in orbit."

"Then the CAT6 will have to clean up, still a good distraction for us." Eve response almost immediately while surveying the elevator shaft which seems to went down so deep that they couldn't see the end of it. "But that doesn't mean we won't encounter any of them down there."

Though the suggestion seem amoral, Jondum couldn't help but agreed with her – they've no time or manpower to deal with the pirates and Cerberus, and it was his request that they spared these people in the first place thus partly his fault, and her opinion still sound and practical given the range of their objective here, thus he'll obliged.

"Shall we inquire Mr. Robert about their deployment tactic?" Anchor suggested.

But Eve shook her head "Let's not make him more uncomfortable than already is, Anchor. He made his loyalty to his organization clear, thus anything we get out of him regarding this matter still have to be taken with a grain of salt anyway."

"In other word, information we get from him still useless…" Ophelia added, while Oberon and Jondum silently agreed with them.

"_-I hear that you know!-"_ Voice of the captive CAT6 sounded over the Omni-Tool's communicator "-_But yeah, thanks for being considerate anyway… even though I don't know what you're talking about at all.-"_

Jondum find himself at a loss of word, and others were not helping at all, thus he moved to look at the elevator shaft before glancing at Eve questioningly. And yet again that she made him suspect that she could read his thought, or predict future… or whatever along that line.

"Elevator is not working. We'll glide down there, hold tight Inspector…"

Five minutes of _'controlled free fall'_ later (with Oberon and Ophelia sealed the opening back with debris to make sure no one follow them), the group finally reached the bottom of the elevator shaft with its door closed, but a few seconds of hacking from Jondum, and it slid open.

The first thing that comes into their view was a dull grey corridor leading further inside. Human corpses wearing Cerberus uniform scattered around with small pool of blood littered the place. Broken security cameras and sentry guns send shower of sparks once in a while from their severed mounting in the corner – the latter which Jondum was thankful to the Cerberus for clearing it out at the cost of their lives.

But the sight of Cerberus in this supposedly secret passage also alarming; it means they know something in here and come specifically for it.

Without the need of word, Eve turned transparent before completely disappeared once more, while the rest slowly advance forward whenever Eve told them that everything ahead was clear.

And once more the SPECTRE couldn't be gladder to have these people on his side as this corridor was filled to the brim with deathtraps! It range from the typical one like pop-up sentry guns around the corner, motion sensor and murder holes, to the silly-yet-equally-lethal one like fake floor that drop people into a tank full of sharks! And he's quite sure that Venus Fly Trap the size of air car or flower that spit poisoned pollen must broke a few laws in genetic engineering as well! [1]

Of course, all of them were either disabled or exposed by Eve if all those metal grinding noise that prelude her go-ahead signal were any indication, though regrettably, Jondum couldn't see how she did it or have any idea how she detected them at all.

However, all that thoughts were put on a backburner the moment he rounded another corner to find a large room with bullet-proof windows overlooking a dark hallway below, and next to the windows also has several monitors and control panels - most of which still active - present.

'_Chance to find out what's happening here!'_ the SPECTRE quickly get to work on the control panel, and to his surprise; it wasn't that well-defended as he first thought. But when factored in the deathtraps corridor previously, perhaps the owner never expected any unwelcomed guest to get past that place at all.

Once he cracked the security, the Salarian SPECTRE begins reviewing the security records.

First thing he found was that his group's current location; they're close to the main tower, separated by just another hidden elevator at the other side of the hall this room's overlooking. Second was the record made mere hour ago - which made him feel chill down his spine as it showed that the same outbreak they've encountered at that small village also happened in this secret lab as well, and that also explained the lack of personnel in this level as most of them either retreated, infected, or dead.

Unfortunately that this's just security checkpoint, thus there're no useful information regarding the reason of outbreak in this computer at all.

Before he could formulate next course of action, a loud growl came from the door opposite of where they came in…

Oberon rushed to cover his charge, arms raised just in time to block a slash from a human that suddenly leapt out of the shadow, the man failed to do anything to the butler – perhaps because he's using just his bare-hand and nails to claw him instead of other sharp object, before Oberon simply batted the man into the wall, sound of something broken can be heard and the attacker collapsed.

"Sorry milady, it was reflex…" the masked butler apologized while Ophelia moved up to the unconscious man together with Anchor.

As the maid rolled the man face-up, they were surprised that he wasn't a Cerberus, or affiliated to Sanctuary at all judging from his normal, civilian clothing.

"A test subject…" muttered Ophelia, despite her voice kept low, there was a tint of hatred and disgust – not at the unfortunate man - as she carefully stowed the man to the side once checked him up while Oberon and Anchor took forward position at the side of the door leading inside in case something unpleasant show up again.

Eve then spoke up "I'll scout ahead, we cannot waste time here." And then she vanished.

Without further ado, the group moved forward with Jondum and Ophelia acting as rear guard while Anchor and Oberon moved forward and silently incapacitates any infected test subjects roaming the recently abandoned facility. Which yet again, the SPECTRE was being thankful of, as using his gun will attract the mob to swarm them and he's not expert in close combat either.

They leap frogged from one room to another, using any containers, boxes, or any object scattered as cover, when they found computer terminal, Jondum will try accessing it to find any potential evidences to incriminate Sanctuary, but alas, after they're halfway across the vast hallway, searching every rooms they came across, all was in vain as most terminals were damaged or destroyed…

…Until the final room which contained not only computer terminal, but also several metallic cylinders – the same one that installed on the truck outside, and glass capsules containing strange green gelatinous substance in it, with ventilation on top connected to the machines as well.

By now, everyone in this little group mostly know their duty to heart; Oberon, Ophelia and Anchor swiftly swept the area clean of hostilities with Eve be their forward observer marking target for them and the Salarian SPECTRE get the data in computer or any storage device in the area.

After double-check that the room's speakers volume set to lowest possible that still allow everyone to hear what it say; Jondum replay the file. Monitor near the capsule control panel flared to life in the dimly lit room showing image of people in lab coats – scientists, fidgeting around instruments, and though the camera's angle blocking view on the content of said capsule, the recorded voice of someone made clear what this place was doing… initially at least…

"_First batch of Spore-like organism collected from Zhau's Hope colony on Feros arrived today, preliminary examination showed that it's in perfect condition, we'll soon begin testing its effect on animals..."_

Before he play the next recording, Jondum glanced to the side, finding that the little girl Anchor has sneaked up on him and listening in, leaving Oberon and Ophelia guarding the entrance. Yet when he glanced over them to have them take the girl back, the maid nodded slightly in acknowledgement and resume their sentry.

A poke on his wrist brought the Salarian SPECTRE to confront with the little brunette who has a determined look on her face as she gets to the point "Anchor want to know. Perhaps it'll contain information how to cure everyone back there."

"So am I…" Eve's voice then entered his earshot, making the SPECTRE nearly jumped – again – at her sudden presence, the Empress stands behind Anchor, with her hands behind her back while watching the screen "…and before you ask, there're no hostiles in the area – those that still conscious at the least. Power outrage disabled all surveillance devices long before we arrived, so we're safe for now." Then she adds "…all this computer are running on auxiliary power. I guess they prioritize preserving research data more than security."

Jondum didn't find that odd, after all; illegal experiment mostly didn't care about safety, so cutting corner in security in the lab is quite a given. [2]

He then played the next recording…

"_First test result; the spore didn't get purge by antibody of the subject. It seems to form parasitic relationship by interacting with host's nervous system – either inside respiratory system or digestive system. But judging from the result coming in from Feros colony, it seems that without species 37 to control it, the spore will remain dormant."_

Jondum blinking his eyes rapidly while repeat what he just heard "Species 37?" and then he quickly issue search command on the computer. And as a result, the picture of said species along with notes from the colony manager – Exogeni Corporation – showed up on screen.

Eve's eyes narrowed at the description of this 'Species 37' and how it operate, she leaned toward the screen and study the picture of bloated mass of plant-like tendrils hanging in some sort of underground cavern with great interest.

It reminded her of something she encountered in the past, back on Elrios, and it wasn't a pleasant experience at all…

"Alterasia…" Eve muttered softly as the image shifted again to a sickly green skinned corpse-like humanoid creature with description as a spawn of said 'Species 37' with apparent purpose of defending its master. [3]

Salarian SPECTRE glanced at the white haired woman, puzzled at what she let slip, yet he set that aside in favor of playing the rest of the record first.

The more the record played forward, the more Jondum wanted to simply shoot the man behind all this experiment the moment they meet, as the 'research' they did was anything but humane.

"_We theorized that the creature 'Species 37' code name 'Thorian' use some kind of signal to communicate with sentient being infected by its spore. The signal only transmitted across the entire Feros and up to approximately 10 kilometer from the surface. If we could replicate this signal, we can take control of any people infected with the spore."_

If this record didn't count as incriminating evidence, then the next one certainly would…

"_Experiment with human subject showed promising result, this signal type could stimulate action from the spore, yet it couldn't compel host to do anything but creating intense cranial pain and weakening host's immune system over time, and sometime result in host's allergic reaction..."_

Sure enough, the video playing on-screen was of a man clutching his head while thrashing about the medical bed with two human in lab coats holding him down until one of them tapping his Omni-Tool to shut down something in the background that the 'guinea pig' dropped down on bed, unmoving, before other workers come to carried him away. And then the voice recording resumes explanation.

"_As you can see, we have yet to figure out how to duplicate the signal that the 'Thorian' uses to control its slaves, but the potential is promising."_

It was the next video that finally shown the face of the speaker, the face that made Anchor grasped in surprise while pointing at the screen "That's Mr. Lawson!"

Jondum paused the recording before asking in hush tone "Lawson? Successful Human Businessman, owner of multiple companies?"

Anchor nodded in confirmation, while the blank stare from Eve was all that he needed to know their answer.

Filing that up, the SPECTRE continues the final recording, which Mr. Lawson himself narrating what transpired about months earlier.

"_Breakthrough! We finally found a way to control host via signal to some extent! But the side effect is that they couldn't distinguish allies from enemies and will attack anyone without the spore inside them. It'll require bigger samples to find the proper signal transmitter. Removing the spore is tricky; four of our personnel accidentally exposed to the spore died due to an attempt to remove them. On the other note, we also discovered a drug derived from Red Sand that could suppress the spore temporarily, but addiction effect of Red Sand and the short duration of effect still a problem. All in all, we'll begin spreading the spore on nearby colony to begin the next phase of experiment soon."_

As on cue; Jondum quickly bring out the file containing said 'suppressant' formula. But that doesn't matter; what worried him was the lack of 'true cure' and the chance that this research falling into wrong hands such as Cerberus who may try using it to mind control not just System Alliance government, but also other galactic community as well.

Not to mention what other unsavory organizations will do should they get their hand on it. At worst, he might already too late, Cerberus and Batarian pirates descending down on here already a bad sign that there might be a leak…

"Inspector…"

Eve's voice snapped him out of his thought, the Salarian looked at her and surprised to see her completely calm and composed despite all the truth revealed just now.

Seeing his worried look, Eve gives him a small – assuring smile "I think I can work out a more permanent cure given appropriate equipment and materials…" she stated neutrally with slight undertone of confidence "…the more pressing concern is to make sure the one responsible didn't get away with this."

Jondum still not convinced, he crossed his arms and asks "How can you be so confident that this cure of yours will work?"

Eve contemplated her answer for a moment and decided to share the SPECTRE partial truth "Similar creature existed back at my homeworld… and we were able to find a cure to people enslaved by it."

Anchor looked at her mother questioningly, which Eve responded by glancing at her, and that's enough for Anchor to understand and looked at the SPECTRE instead.

For Jondum who's oblivious to the hidden message between the two, he grumpily decided "We've to arrest Henry Lawson first; the evidences here are too damning to let him slip away…"

Eve and Anchor looked at each other, before the Empress reminds the SPECTRE "We should disable signal transmitter first, so people in this lab won't wake up berserk again…"

Ah, there's that too…

* * *

Henry Lawson tapping his foot impatiently while scowling at the image of one masked mercenary on screen in front of him as the merc reported situation on the outside. All the joy of finally found what was his that was lost long ago vaporized by the sudden turn of event on his property and the lack of efficiency of his employees to stop it.

"So you're saying that my personal shuttle was damaged despite hidden deep underground away from all the fighting!?" The billionaire snarled at the CAT6 on screen, all cultivated gentlemanly mask completely shattered as his face contorted with anger at the mercenary leader.

"_I'm sorry sir…"_ despite the mask obscured his facial expression, the way he shifted uncomfortably was more than make up for it. _"-…from what our engineer told us, part of the hangar doors collapsed on top of the ship due to outside explosion - and by stroke of luck – falling debris damaged the fuel tank we removed for maintenance.-"_

Mr. Lawson cut sharply "I don't have time for your excuse! Make sure that no one touch that transport and get it running ASAP!"

The mercenary leader saluted him, but Mr. Lawson hasn't done yet "And cleans up those dogs Cerberus and four-eye pirates loitering around my property as well! Without reinforcement and their ships in orbit that should be an easy task for your force…"

With that said, the billionaire shut down the communicator. The room darkens considerably since there're not many lights in it. He calmed himself before turning to the other side of the room and speaks in placating manner "Sorry for such display my dear. But sometime smooth talk just won't cut it for a brute like that you see…"

The woman who was tied to a chair on the other side didn't reply as she struggled to break free. The sight of futile act made the man sighed "Really? You should know that this's the safest place to be on this planet, dear Oriana, and we'll be completely safe once we get off this backwater place... oh and removing that spore from your lungs too!"

Orinana paused her struggle and glare poison across the room at the billionaire, if only the look could kill, Mr. Lawson would be dead by now. Contrast to her normally easygoing nature, the teen was furious as she pieced the puzzle together "So you're the one behind that outbreak in Horizon!"

Henry Lawson raised an eyebrow and insisted "A controlled experiment, my dear. I'm a model citizen of humanity. I'll never resort to wanton destruction and suffering without the betterment of mankind in mind."

"Hard to see how turning people crazy can make mankind better…" Oriana sarcastically remarked.

Mr. Lawson's eyes twitched slightly as he walked to his personal beverage bar and pour himself a drink. One sip from glass of wine in his hand later, he turned to address the captive with a much calmer manner "I should've knows… raised in that sort of _'substandard' _environment would done that to you… perfect descendant or not…"

Oriana at first was angry at the audacity of the man to belittle her family, but replaced with confusion after the last part "What do you mean?"

The billionaire downed his drink in one go, slammed the glass down on the table loud enough to make Oriana jump. The man breathed in hard trying to calm his nerves, before he turned to address her with slight edge "I guess there's no helping it but tell you the truth; that is, your so-called family isn't your true parents…"

"Old news, I already know that…" Oriana quipped before adding "So, are you going to sprout cheesy line like _'I am your father' _or something?"

"Oh, so you're smarter than I thought, as expected…" Mr. Lawson compliment, though it was lost on Oriana who was too angry at him to care. "Yes, I'm your biological father; your sister spirited you away from me when you were just a baby, I've been searching for you for many years…"

Oriana looked at the man with disbelief in her eyes, and seems the man saw it too as he lamented "I hope that we'd meet under better circumstances, but alas, it's irreverent, fate finally brought us together once again, and now **my** future is secured."

The man came closer as he reached for Oriana's chin, but she shake her head away from his hand and snarled "I'll never count someone who callously disregard people's life as father! You're nothing but a mad man, Mr. Henry Lawson!" she emphasized his name, to symbolize that she see him as stranger, not family.

"Such spirit…" Mr. Lawson frowned and retracted his hand before replies softly yet slightly disappointed "…but spirit alone won't change future, my actions may seems mad, but alas, common folk always regard pioneers as mad, we have to move forward in search for eternal achievement that when the future generations look back, they'll thank and worship **me **for that. And you, my dear, will soon come to support me on this endeavor when we have time to discuss…"

"Pioneers are always called insane, but being insane doesn't always make you a pioneer Mr. Lawson!" the brunette retorted hotly.

"Enough!" Mr. Lawson slapped Oriana across her cheek before using a napkin to wipe his hand – as if the act of touching her soiled his hand - and walked back to sit on the couch near the big screen on the wall "We'll discuss it once we get off this forsaken planet."

"You think you can get away with this?"

The billionaire turned and responds to Oriana's defiance with smug smile "Of course I can. Even the SPECTRE in town won't get a clue... especially when he's busy dead."

Seeing her confused look, Mr. Lawson chuckled "Oh, yes, there's a SPECTRE in town today, but my CAT6 friends already take care of him. And don't worry about pirates or Cerberus, if our hired guns could kill the Citadel Council's finest, then they won't pose a threat to this place."

Suddenly, siren blared from speaker, startled Mr. Lawson as he quickly tapped Omni-Tool and asks the captain "What's happened?"

There was no image, only sound responded to the billionaire's call which accompanied by shooting noise in the background _"We're engaging Cerberus and pirate remnant sir, but we have reason to believe that there's Cerberus infiltrator already in the inner section. I've alerted bodyguards outside your sanctum but I think you'd need to know…"_

Henry Lawson frowned, but didn't reprimand the merc "I see, thanks for the warning. And get back to your duty, those four eyes and Cerberus won't move themselves out of my property on their own."

"_Yes Sir!"_

Once the communication went silent, Henry Lawson eyed his inner sanctum warily, especially at ventilation duct on velvet ceiling, reminding himself that it was too small to support a person inside, thus he walked to his desk, pulled out a pistol then returned to the side of his daughter.

Oriana eyed the gun in his hand with fear, but Henry paid her no mind as he stood behind her chair "Do not worry…" he whispered in the teen's ear, then swung his free hand around the room decorated with velvet carpet, gold lining and all sort of luxury and artworks fitting billionaire status [4] "my personal sanctum was built to last, nothing short of dreadnought orbital bombardment will put a dent in it… and elite CAT6 at the door…" he gestured toward the armored composite door – which by all rights should belongs to bank vault – as if to emphasis his confidence "we should be safe until everything clear…"

As if to challenge his boast; there was a loud 'thump' sound echoed from the armored door which startled the young woman, but Henry quickly lifted her out of the chair while her hands still tied… his gun pointed at her temple as a precaution...

Just in time before the door hissed opened and armored form of CAT6 that guarded said door fall down in heap next to it with his sidearm missing…

Mr. Lawson narrowed his eyes, mildly surprised as a woman in white and black skintight 'cat suit' which leaves nothing on her finely-toned body to imagination came into view. Her gaze laid on the woman in his clutch and eyes widen in surprise.

"Don't come any closer!" yelled Mr. Lawson, as his gun pressed against Oriana as the intruder froze on the spot, with gun pointing at him in return "Hmph… so you show up! I should've known you'll come after me one day."

The woman said nothing for a moment, both hands clutched her pistol, index finger twitched irritably as if wanted nothing more than putting a bullet into his skull.

After a minute of silent, the woman spoke as she came closer, accidentally putting her face into the light which made hostage in Henry's grip widen her eyes as she stared at her older lookalike face of the intruder. "Release Oriana now!"

"So you can kill me? Not a chance!" Mr. Lawson smirked as he knows he's having an upper hand, but quickly adds when his traitorous daughter begin glowing blue "And don't you even think about it! I've rigged Sanctuary's foundation with bombs…" his smirk turned into toothy grin as he saw the blue glow around the woman subsided "…smart one, yes, if I died, then the bombs went off, along whatever your Illusive man sent you to retrieve as well!"

"Like I care about whatever you cooked up here…"

Before the woman could finish, the door slid opened once more and the lean figure of Salarian along with a butler and a maid in white uniform stormed into the room. The alien's large black eyes took just a second to register the scene and point his gun toward the standoff "Freeze!"

"Ah, SPECTRE, your timing is impeccable!" Mr. Lawson took this moment of distraction lowered his gun from Oriana's temple without his other daughter taking advantage, but still holding firm grip on her just in case while trying to persuade the Inspector despite he tried to have the Salarian killed back at the village "…You must save me and Oriana! This woman is Cerberus associate that lead the assault here!"

The billionaire then glared at the woman in cat suit who took a small step back from both Henry and the Salarian, her gun lowered and not pointing at anyone as if trying to convince the SPECTRE of her innocence.

Meanwhile, Oberon and Ophelia slowly circling the billionaire and 'Cerberus operative' to get on a position that's best react to anything both parties might try.

SPECTRE, however, firmly pointing his gun at Mr. Lawson as if he never heard his pledge earlier while calmly states "I'm here to arrest you, Mr. Henry Lawson! In the name of Citadel Council and SPECTRE, You're charged with illegal experimentation upon sentient being! Terrorism and attempt murder! Drop your weapon and release hostage now! Or I'll use lethal force!"

Mr. Lawson pointed his pistol back at Oriana's head the moment word _'arrest'_ escape the Salarian's lips "Damn you, Citadel Council dog!" he realized that this SPECTRE – who he tried to have the CAT6 murdered back at village – is too smart to be fooled and seem to have a vendetta against him.

His eyes twitched, as his grip tightened around Oriana's neck; he's not stupid, he knew that SPECTRE has – for all intent and purpose - license to kill, and could care less about civilian casualties as long as they completed their objective; having Oriana as human shield is 50-50 chance to stop him from shooting at best, and that's not counting what his traitorous daughter going to do!

'_I have to… what the?!'_

Mr. Lawson's train of thought came to a halt when pistol in his hand suddenly yanked upward with such force that almost pulling him up with it! In that moment of confusion, Oriana pulled free and rushed toward her lookalike who seemingly forgot her gun as she embraced the girl with open arms instead.

As Mr. Lawson tried to get his gun, the ventilation duct on top of him shattered, raining pieces of metal on him along with rapidly approaching metallic foot that planted squarely on his face before the impact send him sprawling on the ground with broken nose, and then the figure quickly make a blackflip down like a cat, then rushed up and slammed the billionaire face-first to the floor and tied up his arms in quick succession.

The Salarian moved forward; seemingly do not want to interrupt the reunion between the twins. As the SPECTRE moved closer to the floating gun, a figure of white haired woman in regal white dress slowly faded into view, her hand held out the pistol seized from Mr. Lawson to the Salarian SPECTRE who quietly accepted it.

Oriana-lookalike watched it with surprise evident in her eyes; Cerberus have some of the best equipment for covert operation in the galaxy – second only to Salarian – but still, for the SPECTRE to let an obvious civilian uses one and assisted him means that they're desperate or really essential to this mission and perhaps she could convince the girl to share her experience using one…

The brunette shook her head; this's not what she's here for, she has no idea what item her 'father' talked about that The Illusive man wanted. She's not even aware of this so-called Cerberus mission! She just take a break, coming here to check on her little sister out of worry that she'll be found by her 'father' during her volunteer trip and get abducted by her father – which is what happened.

Still, the presence of Cerberus here was troubling; was The Illusive man strike a deal with her father behind her back? What are they trying to cook up that – by SPECTRE's word, involved illegal experiment on innocent civilian?

"Miss Oriana, are you all right?"

That broke the twin out of her thought as she realized that her 'younger sister' somehow broke away from her without her noticing and now conversing with the little girl in red – or to be more accurate - scolding "Anchor? Miss Eve? What are you doing here?"

The girl in red dress rubbed the back of her head with her prosthetic arm nervously and replies "Anchor and mother come here to save you! Mr. SPECTRE helped us get here…" to which the white haired woman next to her simply nods in confirm of her story.

Yet the Salarian SPECTRE smiled wryly before correcting the child – apparently he's not the type to stole other's achievement, or it was all deception from the Salarian, the Oriana twin couldn't be sure "Actually it was you and your mother that we could come all the way here… now then…"

He turned his attention to where Mr. Lawson has been held down by the masked man in butler suit with the maid standing sentry nearby and stated in crisp militaristic tone "Now, Mr. Lawson, you're under arrest. Anything you say will…"

The SPECTRE never gets to finish his tirades as the ground shook violently, enough that even Orinana nearly falls flat on her back had not because quick reaction from the little girl. Then the dimly lit light replaced with red klaxon along with siren and robotic sound of VI overseeing this facility.

"_-Emergency in Sector 3! Emergency in Sector 3! [5]-"_

"What the… that's area where the main Fusion Rector located!" Mr. Lawson – who was now held up by the butler with both hands tied behind his back - sputtered out, eyes widen in horror.

The rest of people there quickly looked around the room to find console to find where the Sector 3 was, before the screen on the wall lit up, showing holographic projection of VI overseeing mundane task in Sanctuary, along with map of the Sanctuary with one area glowing red.

"_-Warning, Reactor cooling system offline, auxiliary system offline, emergency shutdown malfunction, remote access malfunction… Pressure in Fusion chamber rising… Explosion will cause chain reaction with Fuel Cell that could destroy entire Sanctuary... Six minutes to Prompt Critical Explosion. [6]-"_

Just a glance at the map confirmed everyone in the room that they won't make it to the main Reactor in time, not even with Eve and Anchor's _'special ability'._

However, as they were focusing on the screen; Mr. Lawson ducks down out of Oberon's grip before the butler could react. The billionaire rolled on the ground toward one section of floor before a 'click' sound was heard and the floor gave way to a man-sized hole that swallowed him down and closed up with a parting laughter.

Oberon turned to his charge while bowing his head in shame "I'm sorry Milady…"

Eve frowned, yet didn't reprimand him – verbally at least, as there's more pressing crisis to worry about. A single nod from Eve to the SPECTRE was all that need for him to snap out of stupor and issue order "Let's get out of here!"

It was a logical action; they doubt that the _'villain stage exit'_ that Mr. Lawson used will lead to the Reactor room, and they do not want to gamble whether it'll lead them out of detonation radius or not, thus the good old way is to go out where you came in.

No one dared to question said order, not even Oriana-lookalike that Mr. Lawson claimed to be Cerberus operative, as whatever the Cerberus want, it's going down in flame soon and nothing can prevent it.

'_Perhaps it's for the best.'_ Thought Eve as she speeding through corridors with everyone toward the elevator shaft connected to the surface. _'Hopefully that Mr. Lawson won't get any data out…'_

"_-Five minutes to Prompt Critical Explosion-"_

They reached the elevator shaft in record time despite it was hundreds of meters away from Mr. Lawson's sanctum, but when Oriana and her twin looked around, they gasp in horror "The elevator is not working!"

The reason they panic was that they're hundreds of meters underground, not just one or two stories from surface, there's no way they could climb service ladder fast enough to get away from the imminent explosion unless they climb at superhuman speed, which they couldn't, not even with Biotic ability of the older girl, it still too late.

Salarian SPECTRE glanced meaningfully at Eve, which she replied by motioned Oberon to carry him up his shoulder like a sack of potato. While she and Anchor paired up near Oriana, their arms wrapped around her waist before Eve warns her "We're going up fast, hang on tight Oriana…"

For her lookalike, she was approached by Ophelia. The woman got a clue quickly and allowed the maid to carry her. Indeed that she didn't know what to expect, but seeing that the SPECTRE did it, she opt to think that this's his escape plan.

And it was indeed an escape plan…

When everyone has their 'partners', the synthetics begins ascending the elevator shaft, their legs kicked off from one side of the wall to another, leapfrogging their way upward at speed unmatched by even the best athletes, the repeat inertia of sudden high-speed ascend and small pause between jumps made the 'passengers' almost pass out due to sheer trauma, yet no one allow themselves to pass out just yet – not until they're out of danger.

Though it felt like hours, the climbing session lasted only 15 seconds before they finally on the surface – specifically the wrecked main garden hall of Sanctuary.

No one had time to catch their breath however, as the haunting sound of the Sanctuary VI reminds them of the approaching final minutes of Sanctuary's life again…

"_-Four minutes to Prompt Critical Explosion-"_

Without bothering to drop their passengers off, Eve, Anchor, Oberon and Ophelia dashed through the place at fastest speed possible that their passengers could theoretically tolerate. They went passed one of the pirates still fighting against Cerberus without stopping. And before they know it, the truck that they used to get here was in front of them.

Four synthetics dropped their passengers down on the ground as Eve noticed Oriana's face turned green from the high-speed rush. The teen sprawled on the ground before get up and puke the content in her stomach out, and she wasn't the only one who suffered from this endeavor; while the Oriana-lookalike and the SPECTRE came out better, they still lying flat on the ground, panting…

…but not for long…

"_-Three minutes to Prompt Critical Explosion-"_

The magic word did wonder; all three organics stumbled to their feet despite the nausea and filed into the truck; Oberon went to the driver seat leaving Ophelia, Anchor and Eve to look after the sick passengers. Ignoring shouts from the tied-up Robert in the same compartment, the masked butler started the engine and drives the truck out toward the main road, trying to get as far away from Sanctuary as possible…

* * *

"_-One minutes to Prompt Critical Explosion-"_

"No, No, No!"

Desperate yell filled the cockpit of the shuttle parked in the underground hangar. Mr. Henry Lawson, the billionaire, the mastermind who wanted to use Species 37 spore to further his glory and legend, the man who secretly supported Cerberus' cause for human supremacy and all the titles he know or not know about fidgeting at the command console trying his hardest to make the shuttle fly to escape his doomed investment.

Well, not all was doomed per se, as the data of Species 37 and researches about its mind control power was inside the databank Mr. Lawson wasted time bringing aboard his personal craft, but it'll soon be lost if he couldn't take off soon.

Worse; all the staffs manning the hangar seems to scared off their wit and ran off elsewhere – or have been busy dead by falling debris. The only hope spot he has was that his shuttle was prepared – albeit missing half the fuel, it can still theoretically fly…

…if only he could open the hangar…

"_-50 seconds to Prompt Critical Explosion-"_

Sound of metal grinding came through the speaker in cockpit as the dorsal-mounted camera on the shuttle captured the sight of hangar doors – or what's left of it, parting way, one layer by one layer, until the small ray of sunlight shining through.

"Yes!" Mr. Lawson almost pumped his fist into the air had he's not in pilot seat to control this shuttle; the engine roared, responding to his command as the shuttle began to lift…

But at the moment of triumph, loud explosions rocked the hangar, walls cracked and buckled under pressure from the other side before crumbled and let steam of fire surged inside engulfing all viewports of the shuttle as the sound of VI blared for the last time.

"_-Warning, Reactor Prompt Critical Imminent! Seek shelter immediately! Warning...-"_

Mr. Lawson nearly threw off his seat, he watched the raging firestorm outside of cockpit with wide eyes before screaming to the heaven "D… Damn it all! Why? My legacy… My future…! Why? Why it come to this?!"

And the white light engulfing his vision becomes the last thing he sees…

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] This Chapter, although has basic idea from Mass Effect 3, was slightly influenced by videogame Evil Genius, though that game a bit old and slightly buggy, you should try it, just to get a feel of being in Cerberus' shoes (or any 60s super villain for that matter) for once, heh, heh.**

**[2] Perhaps the partial explanation of why creation of Cerberus (or this case; former Cerberus associate) almost always got loose and try to kill their guys so often.**

**[3] This thing has been shipped off-world even in Mass Effect 1, but you can only encounter it in a side quest. (Not counting Feros)**

**[4] Yet again, another reference to Evil Genius game.**

**[5] Reference to Metroid; specifically how the series always handle the finale in each game. Better open that music to go with the flow.**

**[6] Prompt Critical is the correct term for when Nuclear Reactor is reaching limit and about to blow up.**

* * *

**Palm strike is something I thought up from watching Lie Ren fought in RWBY Volume one, plus some of my father's old book collection about fictional Chinese Wushu – most of them about 50 years old by now. If anything; those fancy palm strike from certain clan with white eyes in Naruto has inspiration from these old Chinese fictions, not the other way around.**

**I hope that this chapter is up to standard. I rarely write fight scenes. And even if this's getting old and not an excuse; this fanfic come from weird idea popping up in my head.**

**Constructive criticism is always welcome. Hope you all enjoy the chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**This Chapter is self-beta, and finished when about to go to sleep, sorry for inconvenience. **

* * *

**Chapter 11: Meeting in person**

Tali'zorah hummed happily while checking over heavy-duty scanner-research machine that the ground team managed to acquire from Feros and installed on the Normandy – much to the bafflement of Navigator Pressley who wondered how they could've cleared enough space for such large object in their cargo bay at all. Her Omni-Tool shines brightly, illuminating the hatch she's using to check over the inside to make sure that everything was in working order…

…that, and make sure that no potentially dangerous items – organic or otherwise, has been sneaked on board… especially consider what they've found down there under Zhu's Hope and what ExoGeni was doing.

But then again, it's because of that stunt of ExoGeni that they could get their hand on this fine tool _as spoils of war_ in the first place, thus she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

The Quarian glanced expectedly at certain white drone hovering innocently to the side, seemingly oblivious to what she had in store for it. While this made her sound like a mad scientist salivating at a chance to experimenting on live specimen, Tali's isn't going to do such thing to this drone.

After all, Remy was ancient – about the same time when Prothean civilization still ruled the galaxy if her preliminary scans were to be believed, and she studied enough history to know that finding a working technology of ancient, millennia old civilization was borderline impossible – the flak that Shepard got from Citadel Council for letting the still functioning Prothean Beacon blew up could attest to that.

Doing something that risk damaging the drone was forbidden, Tali doubt the universe will be merciful enough to let them come across another similar artifact again in centuries to come.

Thus, all she could do now is getting a powerful scanner to look at the drone, if nothing else, it may shed some light to what material they used to make the drone, and could she – and the rest of the galaxy – could replicate it.

Once the check was completed, Tali turned toward the drone in question – which Commander Shepard lent her – and begin giving instruction "Get into that scanning chamber."

The drone hovered in place for a moment, its 'eyes' looked directly at Tali as if disapproved of her tone before quietly complied and get inside the scanning chamber – which is large enough for even Eclor to get inside comfortably.

Again, Tali wondered if this drone is just a simple 'VI' as Shepard and everyone else claimed it to be; though they're not stupid, they're not the most tech-savvy people, nor did they have their history blighted by the menace of machine's intelligence growing out of control like her people. Thus it's understandable that she'd be the only one aboard the Normandy to be wary of any intelligent shown by the machine, however innocent it may be.

Shaking out unnecessary thought, the young Quarian switched on the research machine which hummed lightly; yellow, bright light illuminated the scanning chamber as it began diagnosis the drone sitting in its chamber, several wireframe pictures of the object projecting on the screen as the scan continue, each showing numbers, graphs, or texts for user to gather and interpret the data.

However, what it found surprised the young Quarian, baffled her even; as underneath the energy field surrounding the drone was not made from exotic unknown element as she first thought. On one hand; its metallic skin composed of composite metals, the composition itself weren't any of note as they are in use even today. But on the other hand; the atomic and sub-atomic bonds of the material itself were conditioned to the strength impossible to replicate by any known method and scientific theory! This effectively made the drone have many times better protection than any vehicle using the same composite metal!

'_Whoever made this thing were metallurgy and atomic physic experts at minimum!'_ Thought Tali as she deactivate the scanner and let the drone out – which it decided to bobbed its head at her as if question what she's going to do next.

Somehow, that action made Tali wished she could get biological analysis machine from Zhu's Hope to complete the machine set, but alas, considered what happened down there, Tali knows that Zhu's Hope needed it more than anywhere; what with the unresolved infection that – while inert for now after she and Shepard pumped the Thorian full of lead before send it down to abyss below the Feros surface – still linger in all victim's bodies and there're no guarantee that it'll remain that way forever.

Not only those Thorian spores stuck in place impossible to surgically remove without threatening victims' lives, they also resisted any drugs and antibiotics known to the galaxy, if anyone was in dire need for biologic scanner machine it'd be them, not Tali or anyone aboard this ship.

Still, even if Remy's mysteries remains at large, Tali could see this research machine being useful on analyzing something less exotic - particularly Geth, not only it'd useful for their missions, this could help the Quarian find a weakness in the mechanical menace their ancestors created and perhaps open up a solution to finally take back her homeworld! After all, the Migrant Fleet couldn't afford this kind of expensive machinery as it had to devoted most resources for survival of their people, and that's what slowing down their technological advancement to this day.

Communication beeped, stopping Tali from stray thought and answers to her Omni-Tool "Tali's speaking… Commander Shepard?"

"_-How're you doing Tali?-"_

"Do you contact me just to chitchat?" The Quarian sarcastically quipped before answering "I'm fine, the machine we've got just made a small discovery regarding your mysterious drone, though we still couldn't replicate its construction method but…"

"_-Calm down Tali,-"_ Shepard quickly calmed the young Quarian down as she's about to launched into enthusiastic tirade – which appear whenever she's excited about new technology _"-A situation came up and I just want to call for a meeting of ground team in fifteen minutes.-"_

Tali winced, even Commander wasn't there in person before hastily replies in embarrassment "Sorry, commander, I got carried away. I'll be right there as soon as possible."

* * *

John Shepard glanced around the meeting room as his ground crews flies in one by one over the past five minutes; each find their own seats and wait for others in silent.

It was the young Quarian engineer who showed up last, followed closely by the white rounded drone; Remy, as she took the seat she apologizes "Sorry for being late, Shepard."

Everyone is the room shared small smiles to each other, while Shepard checked his Omni-Tool and inform Tali as she takes her seat "There still three minutes left, so you're not late anyway." Then he asks "Something wrong with the machine we acquired?"

"Just slight software error when I tried to import the scanning result of Remy." Tali replied while her glowing eyes watched said drone making its way toward the first human SPECTRE "Nothing serious." She adds.

Shepard nodded in acknowledgement, but before he could start the meeting, the young Asari questioned the Quarian excitedly "I heard from Shepard that you discovered new information from this ancient drone?"

"Nothing much I'm afraid…" Tali replied modestly "It just open more questions than answer. And confirm that the creator has better grasps of material science than us. Its composition was that we already know of, yet it was much stronger than we could possibly produce! It's the method, not material that give it this properties!"

Liara tried to ask more, but a cough from Shepard put a stop to that "So, it wasn't some exotic materials and energy shielding as we first thought?"

Tali nodded and elaborate "Positive; the energy field is likely the side effect of whatever technique they used to make the material as strong as it is… but I still unable to determine what it is."

Shepard sighed "As much as I want to find the secret of this drone…" his glare landed firmly at the white drone whose behavior would scream feigning innocence if weren't for the fact that he doubted whether it's sentience or not "…we have to put it on hold, as the colonists of Feros are still concern of the infection and the Council – and – Ambassador Udina wanted us to cure it if possible."

"Another political bullshit is it, Commander?" Kaidan Alenko spoke up while twirling a teaspoon in his hand – which Shepard wondered if the young Biotic forget to put it back in the ship's cantina while hurried to finished his meal for this meeting or not.

Yet his comment really nailed the issue and thus Shepard continues – scowl on his face "Yes, just as Kaidan said; the Ambassador feels that while this won't bring the colonists under System Alliance's jurisdiction, at the very least they'll owed a debt to the Alliance. While the Council concerned about the threat this 'Thorian' poses to our civilizations and don't want to leave anything to chance…"

He grimaced when he remembered that Turian Councilor still took a jab that he killed the sole member of a newly discovered sentient species, seemingly turning blind eye to the fact that given the circumstance and the magnitude of threat of this species to everyone, there wasn't any better way. [1]

"So they basically wanted us to develop a cure on top of hunting Saren huh?" Garrus said and chuckles rather sardonically "Since when did we become doctors and scientists? No offence to you, Miss T'soni."

The young archeologist shook her head, yet she was frowning "None taken Garrus. But Shepard…" and then she asks worriedly "…we have only Dr. Chakwas as a qualified doctor aboard Normandy. Tali is a tech expert, and I'm specialized in Prothean archeology, not medical science, the rest of you are soldiers first and foremost. How the Council expected us to do that?"

Shepard looked around the table, and judging from everyone's expression; they were thinking the same as Liara.

Knowing that he shouldn't keep them worried any longer; he tapped his Omni-Tool a few times, ordered the holo-projector in the center of the room to bring out a galaxy map before zooming in on one sector of the galaxy – their next destination "As intelligence regarding Saren's whereabouts still in the dark with no clues nor leads to pursuit, the Council saw it fit to have us do some chore work in the meantime..." he snorted at the last bit.

"They really make the most out of your promotion weren't they, Shepard." Wrex sent a grin from his seat while his hands cradling absent-mindedly an old piece of armor that they recovered by chance from one of the colonist on Feros. [2]

Ashley who seated next to Kaidan pinched her nose at the sight yet didn't comment anything, as she and everyone know how significance that piece of junk to Wrex – and it is something that she could related to a little consider her past.

Notice the awkwardness in the room, Shepard continues with slightly louder voice "Anyway, here's the colony of human that broke away from Alliance – Horizon…" the holographic image shifted to an earth-like planet "The Councilors just received a report from one of their SPECTRE who stumbled across mysterious pandemic there..."

The human SPECTRE didn't need to speak further as everyone has the _'I knew it'_ look on their faces as they puzzled two and two together, which he decided to confirm it "There was an illegal research facility on that planet - hidden within private company recreation complex called _'Sanctuary' _under ownership of the billionaire Henry Lawsonwho was suspected to be Cerberus associate few years ago. And their subject of research was the spore of Thorian and how to utilize it for mind control purpose."

"This SPECTRE guy busted them up and finds the cure there?" Ashley asked with disbelief in her voice; something which everyone else agreed with as it was too much of a coincidence to be true.

To that question, Shepard continues his briefing "It was a volunteer doctor who stranded on the colony after quarantine that developed a cure…" he then looked at Gunnery Chief and nods "But William wasn't that far from the truth; actually, the doctor used data gathered from those in Sanctuary, combined with – as in SPECTRE's word _'her experience in dealing with closely similar type of symptoms before'_, to produce a functional cure. [3]"

He then summarized "There're more to the event that led to the destruction of Sanctuary and its hidden lab, but it was irrelevant as the SPECTRE had already solved the incident. So, our job is to get there, pick up the cure and then get it back here to Feros. No need to develop a cure ourselves."

"Why won't they just upload the formula on the Extranet so everyone could get it, Commander?" It was Kaidan who have trouble with what they heard and raised a question.

Shepard palmed his face and sigh tiredly "Because the SPECTRE in question afraid that it could spread mistrust and chaos across the galaxy should anyone know exactly why the cure is necessary."

As they all experienced what happened on Zhu's Hope first-hand; everyone in the meeting room realized the implication of galactic community at large knowing the existence of mind-controlling, brain-washing life form and that one of the largest terrorist organization – or their associate – find a way to apply it to people. The chaos that ensure will undermine the authority is unimaginable.

Blood drained from all faces, and then, Liara shakily raised her hand, her face grim while she asks another question "Did the Cerberus managed to reproduce the mind control ability?"

The occupants look grimly at Shepard, who shook his head "From what Council told me; the SPECTRE on Horizon made sure that no data regarding mind control could be recovered. And that said SPECTRE doubted that Cerberus knows the full scope of what transpired given that they tried to break into Sanctuary in the first place. It seems likely that those in Sanctuary splintered from Cerberus to keep the research for themselves. And they all now turned to dust by reactor meltdown in their lab."

"Are you sure that the Citadel Council don't just hide a copy of research notes somewhere so they can continue this in secret?" Wrex voiced his suspicion almost immediately, his eyes practically screamed 'bullshit' at what he just heard.

Yet Shepard couldn't deny the Krogan's suspicion either and tell them as such "We can't be sure until we met said SPECTRE in person. Though given the look of Councilors when I contacted with them, it seems the Salarian was the most disappointed." He smiled wryly, recalling the Salarian Councilor's grimace face when telling him that piece of information. "And I think that they want us to get there to see if this doctor who made the cure will be any threat to Council. Considering that now his or her cure is the best lead to the Thorian's '_unique properties'_"

Of course, if come down to it; Shepard may have to do some 'dirty work' to silence the good doctor to prevent this knowledge falling into wrong hands, but he hope it wouldn't come to that.

But just as he said, until he could assert the honesty of the SPECTRE and the doctor who solved the Horizon pandemic incident, he has to err on the caution side "Make sure to check everyone hard suits and weapons." He instructed "Even Horizon has breathable atmosphere, until we can ascertain that the cure work, all spores eliminated and that everything matched with what we found here on Feros we'll have to be caution… any question?"

As no one raised any more fuss, Shepard concluded the meeting and went to the bridge to prepare for departure.

* * *

It took 6 hours before they could finally leave the port of Zhu's Hope, thanks to no small part in overprotectiveness of Joker and Pressley toward the Normandy – insisted to check every nook and cranny for damage in the aftermath of what they dubbed 'Zombie apocalypse' despite said 'Zombie' could only scratching the paintjob with their hands and claws that did no real damage.

The delay didn't cause any issue though, and before Shepard know it, the Normandy finally emerged from the Mass Relay of Iera System where the colony Horizon lies, and not a moment after, the sight of the blue planet can be seen from the windows on the bridge.

"Approaching Horizon, Commander… We're being hailed by the local starport asking for our intent… what should we tell them?"

There, on the pilot seat just few paces away from Shepard, his trusted pilot Joker turned his head around, looking at him expectedly for answer.

Shepard wondered if this question from Joker necessary, but he concluded that Joker just want to be sure that he should flaunt his SPECTRE authority in an attempt to smooth thing up or not, seeing that one other SPECTRE was already down there. So it's not like he's dumb or anything.

Weighing pros and cons as the Normandy hovering over the colony world in wait, Shepard grimaced at the lack of information – or history for reference; most SPECTREs were lone wolf and almost never interact with each other – let alone being on the same planet.

As to not waste any more time; Shepard decided to be honest and instructs Joker "Tell them that I'm aboard and request permission for landing…"

Soon enough, his choice proved to be effective; they allowed him to dock with their rather run-down spaceport under the morning sunlight without much fanfare – if you discounted the armed guards that came flocking around Normandy's exit ramp that is.

Shepard stepped down first, followed by Kaidan and Ashley, then the rest of ground team – all in their hard suits with weapons attached to the back. The presences of aliens among his crews seem to tip the guards' alarm as they trained their weapons at his team. And Shepard has to quickly intervene

"They're with me gentlemen…" he said to the guard with straight face, trying hard to be as convincing as possible without too intimidating "We just come here to pick up the cure to mysterious disease. There's another colony in need of the same cure. Life is at stake here."

"How can we sure that what you said is true?" One of the guard retorted, with some of his companions nodded in agreement "You could've lying through your ass to strike us when your slavers friends comes to raid our colony!"

As luck would've it; it seems the news of his promotion to SPECTRE didn't travel fast enough despite the advancement in galaxy-wide communication network. And the paranoid of the local – stemming from constant threat of pirates and slaver gangs in Terminus – did little to alleviate the problem.

And just like on Noveria; it take a timely intervention from colonial management official to figured out the news from Extranet to confirm his identity and tell these guards to let them through.

'_At least this's an improvement compared to that accursed Noveria'_ Shepard thought ruefully while being escorted to see the colonial management official along with everyone on the ground team.

However, all optimism was grounded to a halt when he met the officials themselves at the administrative building a few blocks away from spaceport; these locals were less than pleased to know that they've to receive another SPECTRE walking around and wanted nothing to do with the recently solved pandemic at the outskirt of the colony.

"We don't even know what happened in there." One of them – the old man seated at the round table waiting for Shepard and his entourage in the reception hall - claimed and shrugged "We can't risk the infection to spread to the spaceport do we? So anyone ventured there cannot get away from the village for more than a day. It's a rule to protect others Shepard."

Shepard just stood there, narrowed his eyes at the bureaucrat and crossed his arms "I don't recall any standard protocol that make civilian expendable sacrifice. You don't even send any doctors."

"Please, SPECTRE, we're lack of doctors here. And who'll look after the main colony if we send them to the pandemic site?" another administrative attempted to reason - with half-assed excuse in Shepard's opinion.

It was Wrex who dryly remark "Why not just simply burned the whole village down – people and all – then call it a day if you're going to do what you did?"

Shepard's team didn't react to Wrex's sarcasm because he was right to an extent. However, faced with insult, one of the local administrators retorted heatedly "Listen here, giant lizard! We human are not barbarian! Everything has procedures and protocols to follow for the safety and wellbeing of the colony!"

Even Ashley – who was slightly pro-human – couldn't find it in her to support this course of action; not only has it condemned a section of population to slow, agonizing death should the disease proved fatal, but also inefficient in containing a serious outbreak as no one send any personnel to check what's going on there at all.

And the reason it end quite well with few fatalities was because of actions of a passing by SPECTRE… if not… who could imagine what Cerberus would do with the mind control research? But the local didn't need to know that.

However, that doesn't mean that Shepard wouldn't chew them out to have them get priority straight.

"It would be more effective to simply send in qualified doctors to control the pandemic while quarantining the area…" Shepard noted with displeased tone "Instead you send in volunteers and locked them up there, are you expecting them to cure the thing or are you expect to kill everyone there and sweep everything under a rug, thinking that the pandemic has been quelled by the death of those infected?"

"We provided food and water regularly, so they'd better do their job!" the same man countered with no sympathy "You're just soldiers! Council's lap dog! What could you possibly know about administration?"

Shepard really wanted to punch this bureaucrat now, if not for the fact that it'd complicate the situation and make those on Feros wait longer for the cure he would. But now he has works to do.

"Anyway, SPECTRE who came here sent message about successful cure and asked us to come and pick it up so other colony suffered from the same disease could get cure." Shepard returned to the original topic, yet his glare told the colony official that he hasn't forget what they've done yet, and intend to leverage it for what it worth "If you'll lift the quarantine as soon as we confirmed the cure works and send all volunteers home, then I'll let it slide this time. What do you say?"

Suffice to say; they agreed with him immediately... that improve his mood a little while they flies out of the office back to the Normandy and that's when he suggests "So, let's unload the Mako. I wish we could get this over with as soon as possible."

His entire ground team froze on their tracks and staring at him with horrified gaze, each shuddered at the memory of their Commander behind that thing's wheels.

Noticing the reaction, Shepard sighed "Come on, how we supposed to get there if not by Mako?"

"With all due respect sir; not with **YOU** driving it…" Ashley spoke first with crisp, formal tone indicating the seriousness with horror yet to fade from her eyes "…I understand that in combat situation it's what kept us alive, but now that there're no danger, there's no need to cause panic by driving a tank up their doorstep."

At this, other members nodded vehemently, agreeing with the Gunnery Chief's assessment… all except certain Krogan that is…

"Really, after all those missions so far, I thought that you all would get used to it by now…" Wrex snickered, earning ire of Ashley who shifted her glare at him to which prompt the Krogan to hold up his hands and chuckled "…easy there, your opinion has merit. We're not here to fight. Why waste fuel on a tank when we can ask local for a vehicle, I think we have some credits to burn do we?"

Shepard entertained that idea for a moment before decide against it and make up his mind "We'll fly Normandy there. I'm confident that they'll agree."

He didn't notice the sigh of relieve from his team at all…

* * *

Ten minutes later, Shepard found himself strolling down from the Normandy's cargo bay. In front of him lies a temporary settlement with many volunteer doctors busy at work. Some locals glanced warily at the Normandy and people who came out of it while other shrugged it off and go about their business preparing for another busy day.

Looking through the street led to the market square, Shepard noticed that most still has somber look on their faces as if they recently struck with tragedy – which to the SPECTRE - shouldn't that far from the truth if what happened at Feros was any indication.

Shepard broke out of his thought when he noticed the oddity among the human; namely a single Salarian approaching his group with posture that did little to hide his identity of a man with military training.

"SPECTRE John Shepard I presume?"

…and his greeting basically sealed it – this's the SPECTRE he was looking for.

Shepard steps forth, his hand hold out at the Salarian "it's been a pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Jondum Bau…" he glanced at his ground team and begin introducing each and every one of them to the SPECTRE.

"A pleasure to meet you all as well…" Jondum shook hand with Shepard, his large eyes watched the human's entourage momentarily before nodded "We should discuss this in in your craft. Just to make sure no one bugged it…"

Shepard looked at his team, before they all return to the Normandy. Once in the meeting room, the Salarian pulled out his Omni-Tool and begins scanning the entire place. This irritated Ashley William - the one in charge of security of the ship, but held her tongue out of respect that this's Citadel Special Agent with years of experience more than her.

It took ten minutes until the Salarian SPECTRE was satisfied, so Shepard asked everyone to have a seat first before further discussion.

Then beep sounded from Shepard's Omni-Tool with message asking for permission to transfer file from the SPECTRE seated opposite of him. Shepard looked questioningly at the Salarian who nodded at him, before accepted it. The transfer takes only seconds, and once he opened the file, he find himself staring down list of plants and fruits with instruction how to prepare each ingredient, how to mix it, and how to apply it.

Shepard quietly shared it among his ground team; though they're not biology expert they should understand the strangeness of this cure. And soon enough, Kaidan spoke up "Is that it? I thought it'd be synthesize chemical compound or antibiotic or something, but just plants and fruits juice?"

As if knowing what he was thinking, Jondum replies "If you're asking if it could eliminate Thorian spore, then yes, I already tested it and it worked, take 90 hours to kill the spore and break it down to harmless nutrients."

"But surely, extracting all the essential chemicals to make a drug should speed up the healing process instead of waiting for 90 hours like this." Tali opined with suspicion.

"The one who came up with the cure told me that it's to counteract any side effects of the chemicals..." Jondum explained "…and after observation thus far, I have to agree with her. Good news is that local flora was enough to make the cure, too."

"You mean the doctor who created the cure?" Shepard inquired "Speaking of which, where is she?"

The Salarian SPECTRE suddenly looks nervous for no apparent reason at the mention of wanting to meet with the doctor. He stared at Shepard for full minute before he spoke up "That's another reason why I want to meet you in person…"

* * *

In woodland far to the west of the village where the Sanctuary secretly released Thorian spore to the population in an attempt to emulate mind control ability of the creature stood a small grass field among the green and yellow of trees. Dozens of crosses made from steel pipes tied together dotted this grassland. Some rusted, showing its age, but there're many new one atop small mound of brown dirt indicating their recent addition.

Near the outermost row of crosses there're two figures in civilian cloth; a young black haired woman in late teen kneels as if praying for those buried below. Next to her stood an older woman with almost identical feature to the kneeling one, she looked impassively at the sight of new graves while awaiting her sister to finished praying.

"It's strange that I still pray for them despite being atheist…." Murmured the younger woman as she stood up and dusting off her ankle-length skirt, then she turned to ask her older twin. "What do you think, **Miranda**?"

Said 'sister' take a looking at graveyard with stoic face before somberly replies "I… don't have time for such thing Oriana… not in the past… not even now…"

"It must be hard out there…" Oriana commented while stretching her back, but the next word made Miranda's eyes widen "…I mean, I won't have this happy family and childhood if not because of you watching my back, **sister**…"

The older woman unconsciously stumbled back, her stoic mask crumbled; give way for surprised one "H-how did you know?"

She stuttered, all but confirmed her younger sister's suspicion in front of her.

Oriana smiled coyly "I always feel like being watched since I remembered, sis. I didn't know who or why until that man…" she scowled as face of Mr. Lawson popped up in her mind "…unintentionally hint at it. And remember when Eve and Anchor took your blood sample to check for infection 3 days ago?"

That's enough for Miranda to pieced things together; she reasoned to herself that sticking here for a few days should throw off the SPECTRE's suspicion of her involvement with certain organization and having some conversation with her sister wouldn't hurt.

But now… it seems like a bad idea already.

"I… I just…"

"Don't want me to get hurt?" Oriana cut her sister off cheerfully, yet her eyes shows tints of concern "…as much as I'd like to tell you that I'm fine and that this is the first time something like this happened, I think that it was as peaceful as it is because of you, sis…"

Flashes of guilt showed up on Mirada's face for brief second before she looked away.

Oriana smiled and pats her 'long lost sibling' on shoulder to comfort her "I'm grateful, sis, for you to look out for me and my family. But you shouldn't hide away from us like that. At least we should have a yearly get-together or something?"

The older twin still not looking back until Oriana waved her hand in front of her that she couldn't take this pestering any longer, yet she reigned in her temper and answered, make sure to conveyed her worry to her sister "My line of job isn't that stellar, Oriana, I don't want to endanger you."

"Was this job involved Cerberus?"

Somehow, Miranda started to feel that her sister's bubbly and cheerful personality made it easy to forget that she's smarter than what her behavior might suggest – as if figured out that that little girl in red and her family were synthetics when Miranda was none of the wiser not a clue enough already.

Speaking of which, Miranda quickly dodged the question by stating "I think we have to check on that robot girl – Anchor is it? Shouldn't leave her messing around those mechs…"

"Miranda…" Oriana glowered and addressed Miranda by name, indication that she noticed her attempt to divert the topic "…you haven't answered me yet…"

Minrada kept silent, unsure what to answer. But that made the situation worse as her younger sibling edged closer to the truth – if she knows what she sprouted is the truth that is.

"Why you have to work with Cerberus sis? Haven't you seen what they've done over the past decades?"

She kept silent, hoping against all hope that her sister will draw different conclusion, but all was in vain.

"I believe that you're doing so to keep me out of… that man's grasp and that their action was for human, but after _'that day'_, I don't think they're any better than terrorist…"

"They're doing it for the sake of humanity!" Miranda finally snapped, care not if she spills the beans out to her sister as she turned around and look into Oriana's eyes "And they're keeping promise of protecting you…"

"**You** are the one who protected me, sister, not Cerberus!" Oriana countered with eerily calm voice, her arms crossed and didn't budged from the stare her sister give "They'd happily gunned me down back at Sanctuary, had not those kidnappers shoved me out of the way first…"

"Those operative you saw are…"

"Are what? False flag operation to discredit the organization?" Oriana smirked as she caught on what excuse Miranda trying to use, then she pointed at her twin's face triumphantly "…your face, it's telling me that you don't believe what you're trying to say either!"

"…"  
Miranda couldn't object her sister, not because of bias, but because she got irrefutable evidences from corpses of those operatives that they're under Cerberus's employment. Yet part of her mind still unable to admit that The Illusive man might have a deal with her late father behind her back, and on human experiment too.

Perhaps she should ask The Illusive man when she got back…

"Miss Oriana, Miss Miranda!"

Ophelia's voice snapped her out of thought; she looked to the other side of the graveyard and saw the maid steadily approaching them, her unnerving gaze locked onto the two siblings without blinking, as if preparing to scold them for lingering here far too long.

Miranda turned back and squeezes her sister's hand on her shoulder a bit, prompting the girl to let go and muttered "I'll think about it." Then she turned to address the maid while crossing her arms "What's the matter? Your master already allows us to look after the mechs had she not?"

The maid stopped few steps away from Miranda and gives her a blank stare "We detected a spacecraft landing outside of the village, we're not certain if they're those coming to pick you volunteers up or not, thus Eve think that we should inform you first."

It was Oriana who waved her hand dismissively "Nah, my fellows contacted the main colony a while back; they won't show up until next week, so whoever come here today isn't coming to pick us up."

Miranda nodded in tandem with her sister.

Ophelia looked at the twin and nod slightly "Understood. Then please follow me. We just finished unloading the mechs."

The three of them left the graveyard and walk deeper into the wood until they reached another small clearing; one cargo truck parked just at the edge opposite to where they approach with five white compressed metallic construct in shape roughly resemble a box almost three meters tall. Next to them were Eve, Oberon and Anchor, with the last one kneeling at small sprout on the ground.

As Miranda got closer though, the masked butler quickly barred her way while gesturing at the kneeling robot-child. (She still trying to wrap her head around what Oriana has told her; they look and acted so human, not even the current best robotic technology could do that!)

Though the twin did stopped as Oberon asked, the two still wonder what's wrong, and Mirada impatiently toss out sarcastic remarks first "So, are you seriously telling me that you don't want the sprout to get trample?"

The little robot-girl in red silently sprang out multiple blue holographic rings with her eyes closed. Her right metallic hand outstretched toward the sprout emitting faint green glow.

Miranda's eyes widen when said sprout enlarged into a trunk and shoot toward the sky; green stem slowly turned brown as bark formed around the surface, roots expanded and slithered through the soil, branches exploded outward from the main trunk, budding tumors dotted their surface which expanded into leaves!

It's just like watching documentary film, except that it's not photograph technique and all of this happened in the span of five minutes!

The blue rings around Anchor dissipated as the girl stood up shakily, prompting Oberon to help steady her on her feet. The girl looked at Eve in anticipation as the regal woman in white examines the now fully grown pine with her golden, piercing gaze.

Few seconds passed and the woman gives the child a small smile and a pat on the head "Good job…" She said while looking up the tree "…you've improved a lot since last time, my child. But…"

As Eve abruptly stopped her compliment, Oriana seems miffed about that and blurt out "What? That is amazing you know? Instant fabrication is one thing, but no one can grow a tree like you just did!"

Eve glanced at Oriana before explains "It's hard to see on the tree, but this accelerated growth still has side effect…"

"Anchor's work shortened the tree's lifespan…" Anchor admitted the flaw of her work herself "This technique theoretically can apply to regrow or replace major organs too, but with the way it is, the one receiving treatment may have their lifespan cut by 5% at the very least, 10% at worst. Anchor has to solve it before Anchor healing technique able to cure anything more than a broken bone."

"It's not that grim…" Oriana pointed out "I mean, yeah, Salarian may have issue with it, but for most of us who lived at least 100 years, 5 to 10 years isn't that much. And by the way…" she realized something as she looked at the woman in white "…isn't this programmed into you from the beginning? I mean, Anchor is a synthetic isn't she?"

The twins looked at Eve for answer, and so she obliged "We don't have such thing. Although I already had that ability when I created Anchor, I won't just copy the program, equipment, and hand it to her like how you think I had."

"Then how can Anchor do… that?" Miranda pointed at the tree right next to them, her eyes made it easy to read that she didn't believe what Eve said at all.

"Learn how to apply your basic abilities to solve the current problem, and then practice it."

Miranda make a look that could easily reads "Are you bullshitting me?" at that claim. She wondered why synthetic - creature who value logic and efficiency above all - will use such impractical and inefficient method to accomplish anything at all.

Just one look and, Eve know what the elder sibling was thinking thanks to experiences accumulated over millennia; Miranda is somewhat perfectionist and has certain belief of something created to be efficient servants. So it's understandable that she'd think like that.

"Miranda…" Eve called Miranda, who looks questioningly back in response "I ask you this; why no one want to invent another method of faster than light travel? Why everyone uses Element Zero as the basis of space travel?"

Miranda crossed her arms and answers with a huff "Why would one want to develop something that may or may not yield result, when we have Mass Relay and Eezo technology left behind from Prothean for us to improve u… pon?..." then she realized "oh… oh…"

Eve nodded and returned the conversation back to original topic "I want Anchor to gain some experience by solving the problem with her idea. It's all that matter for now…" she then nodded at the inactive white mechs near the truck "For now, let's deal with this thing; you said the chief want us to see if we can reprogram these mechs to serve as village security, Oriana?"

Oriana looked at the giant white mechs, and then glanced at her elder sibling before replies cheerily "Yep, they dug them out from one maintenance bunker near Sanctuary yesterday, some wanted to just salvage them, but the chief and some militias want to use it as guards. Yet no one really has any expertise in dealing with these stuffs so..."

"She asked me to do it…" Miranda continues while glaring accusingly at her sister, and since the older twin try to omit the fact that she's working for Cerberus from as many people as possible, she decide to sidestep the inevitable question – her own sister knowing it was bad enough already "My… line of work has me do something similar sometime. So I'm confident enough that it should work."

Unexpectedly, Anchor shot an armor-piercing question at Miranda while tilting her head innocently "Then why are we doing this out in the wood? Shouldn't we take these mechs to the machine shop in the village, Miss Miranda? Also, shouldn't Mr. Robert be of help in this?"

Miranda seems to not take that question well; she glared at Anchor in annoyance and promptly ignore worrying look from Eve "I… It's just to not disturb anyone in the village that's all! And that man is CAT6; I don't trust him, no one in the village did."

Anchor tilted her head to the other side with index on her chin, before straighten up and nodded, which Miranda couldn't tell whether the robot-girl buy her excuse or not, but judging from the glint in her ruby red eyes, she probably won't – not unlike how her so-called 'mother' having the same worrying glint on hers, but didn't comment upon.

Anyway, competency with technology aside; the brunette will be damned if she let any harm befall her sister so she have to do her best reprogramming this thing and test it out for safety, no matter what! Or if it comes to the worst… protect her…

Without any further ado; Miranda gets her Omni-Tool up and accessing the mech software – which is of Ymir Series' [4] – remotely. The first part was easy enough, the firewall weren't that difficult, and the second part is reprogramming it to protect the village, when the first mech was done, she move on to the next and the next… and after half an hour, it was all done.

"There…" Miranda sighed, wiping off sweats on her forehead as the holographic interface of her Omni-Tool fade away from sight. Backing away two steps from five Ymir Mechs that still in their 'cargo form' before addressing Oriana and the rest of their group who seem to backed away without her noticing some time when she was busy with the mechs.

Miranda couldn't help but snort – even toward her sister, ignorant to the fact that she ignored their worries earlier "…so much for trusting me huh?"

Oriana rubbed the back of her head sheepishly as the older twins jogged toward her. Oberon and Ophelia remains stoic (it's not like she could see what behind his mask after all), but Eve and Anchor still eyed the mechs warily as if it'll spontaneously explode the second she turn them on.

However, before she could turn on the mechs, the woman glanced at the group of synthetics and another realization dawn on her "wait a minute, couldn't all of you just simply access those mechs with your own communication unit?"

Eve shrugged, calling out the familiar holographic interface of Omni-Tool, showing it to Miranda and answers "If we can do that, then we wouldn't have to get this thing in the first place. Beside…" she paused a bit while giving Miranda a blank look "…I believe that even you do not want anyone to tamper with your mind too."

Miranda grumbled under her breath before turning her attention back to the Ymir mechs and then activates them…

Slowly, the box-shape white robots transform. Pair of vertically aligned eyes flared red before their boxy heads stretch up on their bulky torso. The upper half of their side split up, turning into arms with rocket launcher and autocannons instead of hands, while lower half turned into short – stumpy back-bent legs which the entire frame balance themselves upon.

Once they rose up to standing position, all Ymir mechs' head turned in unison toward Miranda who smiled at the response they were giving; it seems reprogramming these mechs was a success and she could transfer the control to Oriana, who could in turn pass it on to the local once the transport arrived.

That's basically what Miranda was planning; after all, she didn't trust these local to not harm her sister given their not-so-friendly attitude toward fellow human volunteers from other colonies coming to help them fighting pandemic. So the best bet is to convince her sister to agree to keep these pseudo-bodyguards bound to her until time to leave.

However, the robotic voice from the mechs dispelled any thought immediately…

"_-Intruders detected, you must leave this area immediately. You have 40 seconds to comply…-"_

Ymir mechs acted in unison; they spread out and half circling the group with their arm cannons raised and aimed at them threateningly. To which made Miranda stumbled backward, furiously tapping on her Omni-Tool trying to access the mechs to no avail.

"The firewall is up, I can't hack it!" Miranda begins to panic. She couldn't keep her cool when all she had now is a pistol, which - against the heavy weapon equipped mechs - might as well equal to throwing rocks. And with five of them barreling down on them together, her Biotic Barrier might as well not exist.

"_-Unauthorized entry detected, you're in direct violation of colonial law 113 section 9. You now have 15 seconds to comply.-"_

Miranda yelped as Ophelia scooped her up in a bridal carry and begin running away from the approaching mechs at inhuman speed with Oberon did the same to her sister, Eve and Anchor rushing by her side.

Faint robotic, dog-like growl sounded from behind them, followed by another warning.

"_-You now have 10 seconds to complies…-"_

As much as it's tempting to berate Miranda for not consider that those CAT6 didn't activate these mechs to defend Sanctuary for a reason, Eve didn't have the mind to do it as she has to deal with the matter at hand first.

"Anchor…" Eve called her daughter, causing the tiny brunette to look at the Empress as she instruct "Disable the mechs, use everything at your discretion…"

"What!?" Oriana exclaimed while Anchor suddenly pulled a longsword out of nowhere, her eyes fixated on her mother as if hypnotized.

"_-You now have 5 seconds to comply-"_

However, they were just conversing through their unique Nasod communication network to avoid anyone eavesdropping as Eve told her silently _"There're more people approaching us, I have to make sure they're not a threat."_

"_-4-"_

Anchor nodded without question, as she feels those presences too, but since she cannot turn invisible like her mother, she has to do what she can instead.

"_-3-"_

Thus, the petite synthetic extended her right hand to the right while running, caught the tree and swung herself around the makeshift pole to face the incoming Ymir mechs.

"_-2-"_

The mechs responded by zero in on Anchor due to being the closest target, and armed with a sword, giving Oberon and Ophelia opportunity to run to safety.

"_-Subject possess weapon, I am now authorized to use lethal force!-"_ [5]

"Give them a good show, Anchor… and be safe…" was Eve's last word as she faded into mist of blue particles with deafening sound of automatic weapons filled the air...

* * *

"I told all of you that we should've bring Mako!" Shepard spoke through his communication in low voice as he duck low to the ground, avoiding automatic guns fire from a formation of Ymir mechs that strayed dangerously close to his position from almost 200 meters away in the wood. All around him, his ground team was forced to crawl on the ground least those mechs notice them. And since the only cover in their vicinity was just small bushes and tall grass here and there, they couldn't advance without getting swiss-cheese by hail of autocannons fire first.

Sure, there're plenty of trees – both standing and logs on ground - around here, but no one is stupid enough to use them as cover though; the unfortunate trunks some couple of meters away in front of them shredded into pieces of splintered wood already get the point across.

"We should retreat…" his fellow SPECTRE, Salarian Jondum Bau, whispered from his position nearby with his pistol drawn "…You said you have a tank on Normandy right?"

What the senior SPECTRE suggested was sounds given that they're dealing with _five heavy-weapons equipped mechs _with just small arms here. With no useable cover in sight, they cannot get close enough to use grenades or hacking the mech without getting killed by combined firepower first. Thus getting a Mako here would be their best bet to kill these mechs without casualties.

Even so, Shepard didn't want to take this as a sign to retreat, he saw few civilians running away from the mechs in the distance earlier before the mechs open fire. So he tried calculating and planning the best way to approach the mechs and stop their rampage, as there's nothing preventing them from venture into the village and slaughter everyone, waiting out for their battery to run dry isn't an option; these are heavy-duty security robots for a reason.

However, before he could formulate a plan, a shout of surprise from Ashley grab his attention first.

"Wait, those mechs are shooting at something… wait… is that a girl!?"

Shepard activated the visor of his hardsuit, magnifying his sight toward the group of Ymir mechs – which now looking to their right shooting their arm cannons – and horrified when he saw a small, probably preadolescent girl in red and white dress running among the trees in the distance. Her tiny frame keep ducking, rolling, sliding or running in zigzag to dodge the ordinance the Ymir mechs keep throwing at her non-stop!

"That's Anchor; the girl I was talking about earlier…"

Jondum voice echoed nearby, which snapped Shepard from his thought and ask back. "One in the group of supposed _'synthetics'_ that aided you back at the Sanctuary?"

"Yes."

As if on cue; the red blur which until now has been keeping distance and circling around the mech formation suddenly charged toward the first Ymir mech who stick further out of its formation during the pursuit and unintentionally blocking its companions' line of fire. The girl drew her longsword while she weaved her way through barrage of autocannon, closing a distance of hundred meters in seconds before she slides through between the mech's legs!

The rest of the mechs – caught sight of the girl emerged from under its forward brethren – trained their autocannons at her and prepare to shoot. But the girl twisted her body, using her free hand as a coiled spring launching herself upward at the last second, autocannon rounds slam repeatedly on the ground. And in the process of tracking the target, its cannons also hit the first Ymir mech's backside as well!

The Kinetic Barrier does its work - absorbed all the shots and leave the giant mech unharmed. But as the four Ymir's autocannon cease firing due to accidentally hitting friendly and programming to avoid the incident and the forward Ymir turned to look at shooters behind, the girl – which is now in mid-air directly above – do a backflip when gravity took hold. The little red descended down toward the first mech with unnatural speed, silver tip of her sword point straight at the center of mech…

A Second later and the girl slammed down on the mech like a red comet, its eyes broken off from its face as its overhead plating caved in from impact. Its legs buckled due to momentum and the mech leaned forward while its arm cannons went limp to the sides due to its central processing unit no longer function. Sparks flew from its head as the brunette pulled her sword out of its head and then kicked it toward other Ymir, jumping away.

The mech fell down with a loud thump, yet this didn't deterred other remaining Ymir mechs from their mission; they stride forward with arm cannons raised, aiming at the red blur dashing between the trees trying to circle them...

None of the four remaining mechs notice the beeping sound coming from its fallen comrade – which just a second later, when all mechs stood by its corpses - the self-destruct mechanism kicks in, and the fallen one exploded in a massive fireball and mushroom cloud, throwing all four mechs off their feet and down to the ground!

Shepard didn't let this chance slips, he stood up with gun raised while yelling "Everyone, split in pairs and engage the Ymir mechs! Tali see if you can hack one of them, the rest cover each other and try to get grenades in! Go, go, go!"

Like well-oiled machine, all his ground team rose up as one, with Wrex - the bulkiest of the lot, covering for the frailest – Tali, as they rushed toward the downed mechs. Shepard breaks off with Kaidan and Ashley in tow, the trio starts shooting at the closest mech that still struggle to get on its feet. While Liara and Garrus standing far away, peppering another mech with their weapons along with the Salarian SPECTRE.

Though their bullets just get absorbed by Kinetic Barrier, it did gain attention from the four Ymir. Once they regained their footing, each of them pointed their respective arm cannons toward the shooters, the red swordswoman temporarily forgotten.

It's a major mistake… as the mech that tried to attack Wrex and Tali suddenly found its head impaled from behind, a blade pierced through its lower eyes as it stopped moving abruptly, then went limp, dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings being cut, with beeping sound coming from its torso.

"Wrex, Tali, hit the dirt! The mech's going to explode!" Shepard yelled on top of his lung while jumped to the right, barely avoiding another autocannon barrage from the other before Kaidan can use his Biotic to push away the mech's arm cannon while the sound of exploding mech fill the air for the second time.

However, that action seem to triggered something in the mech's coordination logarithm, as while other three mechs keep their autocannons trained and fire at respective group facing them, they ready another arm – all three of them aimed squarely in Shepard's general direction, monotonous voice echoed from their speakers in rather broken English _"-Rawket Lawnchair...-"_

Flame shot out from below their left elbows, and three rockets sour toward Shepard! The human SPECTRE emptied his pistol in general direction of the first rocket, a lucky hit cause it to explode just as it exit the launcher, instantly destroyed the mech's arm. Yet leaving the rest to continue on its course.

However, the other two missiles were intercepted by barrage of hundred ball-shaped projectiles detonating them mid-flight, much to surprise of everyone.

"That was reckless Mr. Shepard…" familiar melodious voice rang from Shepard's right side before ripples formed in the air and the white-haired woman / synthetic Shepard saw in his 'dream' appeared along with a single black drone whose shape identical to the white one he left on Normandy "…still, it seem these mechs has limited intelligence to identify enemy leader and put priority on them… intriguing…"

At this, the woman focused her gaze at another mech, lifting her right hand upward, blue holographic rings projects surrounding her body while another dozen smaller rings the size of football form up behind. Air ripples and wireframe emerged for a fraction of second before they filled up to become white ball-shaped projectiles, along with one two-pronged spearhead-like projectile, all pointing at the group of mech – which now reduced to two thanks to Tali's combat drone – Chiktikka vas Paus if Shepard's memory is correct - blowing its eye along with its head off when its Kinetic Barrier dropped.

The last two Ymir mechs, instead of attacking Shepard's team, busy themselves trying to keep the little brunette in red from reaching sword range with their autocannons, seeing her as the biggest, imminent threat, which isn't surprising, as it took sustained firepower from Shepard's team to deplete its barrier while the girl can simply stab a sword into their large head and instantly destroy them.

Not that Shepard complained though; realized now that the girl could handle herself, he's glad that his team won't be in as much risk as he first thought and so he happily blasting away with his pistol, focusing on the same mech his team has been trying to kill while ignore another one temporarily.

Then Eve's right hand fell down – as if issuing ultimatum, all hovering objects behind her launched themselves simultaneously toward the unsuspecting Ymir mech that just dropped its barrier thanks to Shepard's and his team's effort; the ball projectiles struck into the mech's right side, forming craters on its white armor plating while the spear one penetrated deep into its torso. The mech itself stumbled to the left by the impact and fall down with a loud thump. Blue sparks enveloped the fallen mech, before it exploded to pieces.

At the same time, the final mech met its end at the little girl's sword slicing down, bisecting its head and its upper torso before the girl glowed blue and vanished before reappearing at Eve's side almost at the same moment that the Ymir mech's self-destruct mechanism kicked in, painting the background with flame and debris.

Shepard stared, wide eyes, at the pair of mysterious 'synthetics' as the rest of his team slowly regroup around him. Eve and Anchor noticed his gaze, turned to face him, and curtsy as the woman in white greets him with cryptic speech. "Finally, we meet in person, Commander Shepard…"

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] If I remember correctly, that Councilor in ME1 will berates you for pretty much every decision you made, Paragon or Renegade did not matter as long as he can chew you out.**

**[2] Not sure I remembered correctly where it was, but who care.**

**[3] I'm sorry for not being clear in the last chapter for those who know the lore of both universes of this crossover; Alterasia and Thorian is not the same thing, they just share some key characteristics and that's it.**

**[4] Though they first appeared in Mass Effect 2, some of the side-quest suggested that they've been around for at least 10 years before this series begin.**

**[5]All Ymir mech's dialogues are direct reference to ED-209 in Robocop; let's face it; apart from their physical appearance, the two are extremely similar, with the same weapon load-out and hard-points to boot!**

**Sorry if Ymir mechs made Shepard looks a little wimp, but to be fair; you never face 5 of them simultaneously on a relatively flat ground with no reliable cover and no heavy weapons support in the main game either. (Jack's case was justified as Kuril didn't authorize using lethal force when she got loose thus those mechs tried to 'pistol whip' her... with predictable result…)**

**Constructive criticism is welcome as always. Until next time**


	12. Chapter 12

**This Chapter brought to you already Beta'd thanks to the effort of Rosamanelle who helped ironed out mistakes and errors. Please extend your thanks toward him.**

* * *

**Chapter 12 Tale of the Lost Civilization**

Shepard's ground team – plus another SPECTRE – gathered around the two girls who helped them take down the Ymir mechs, their expressions greatly varied. Ashley eyed the two with both suspicion and appreciation, knowing very well that they saved her team from a worst case scenario: facing down five mechs on open ground. Whether they were uncannily humanoid synthetics or not, the fact that they helped them still stood.

It didn't mean she'd let her guard down, though.

Liara and Tali wore varying degrees of curiosity and wariness, more of the latter in Tali's case. Not surprising, considering her people's history with synthetics, although the Salarian SPECTRE was skeptical of their claims until he could be otherwise proven wrong.

Even if they really are synthetic; Shepard doubt that the young Quarian will suddenly has a fit of rage and try to murder them instantly; synthetic or not, they're still ancient relic of the long gone civilization if Remy was anything to go by. And Tali know better than to risk destroying irrecoverable data that may not be found anywhere anymore – especially when they're relatively harmless as they were.

Kaidan, Garrus, and Wrex eyed Anchor with approval, obvious when the fact that the girl killed three Ymir mechs with nothing but a sword was considered. Shepard was quite sure, backed by his conversations about a certain Urdnot's rite of passage, that no Krogan was crazy enough to attempt a fight like that.

The awkward silence was broken as Anchor spoke softly, her voice betraying her nerves. "Ïs anyone hurt? Anchor was just trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible."

No one could fault her; the damn mechs were a mechanical nightmare for the many Alliance soldiers who attempted the N7 exam, and the main reason why most applicants failed. Even if they were equipped with paintballs instead of ammunition. There was much joy and cheer once the one-on-one combat with the mech from hell was removed from the requirements due to budget cuts. The less they spoke about it, the better.

And so, the big solution of any Alliance soldier was to aim for the head, the only known weak spot, as soon as the barrier went down. Despite the massive explosion it caused, it was better than trading shots for who-knows-how-long and hoping that the small bullet would hit something vital inside its large bulk.

Shepard snapped out of his thoughts, voice coming out a bit too harsh. "No one is hurt. I think that you and… Eve…" he nodded in the direction of the woman in white "deserve our thanks."

Relief flashed through Anchor's eyes briefly as she causally but her longsword into an _oh my god what is that portal-thing? And -_

"How can a sword just disappear?!"

Kaidan was the one to state the obvious. A quick glance at Jondum told Shepard that the Salarian wasn't expecting this twist of events either. It seems he wasn't around the two much, if such a trick surprised him.

Despite the clear dumbfounded expressions on everyone's faces, Anchor – who finished putting away her sword – blinked at them in confusion, her head tilted slightly.

It would have made her look cute, had Shepard not been aware that she was a supposed synthetic – highly likely, considering the wicked amounts of damage she doled out in the earlier fight against the rampaging mechs. No human child her age would be capable of something like that.

_Not to mention her unhealthily pale skin and strange contraptions, _Shepard noted wryly looking at the strange gear hovering above her head and her metallic ears.

The silence was broken once more, this time by a cough from the woman in white. She nodded to a truck that miraculously survived the whole fight with mere scratches on its paintjob. "I think that we should take this conversation elsewhere." She elaborated upon noticing their slightly judging glances. "The colonists are surely anxious, what with all the explosions and gunfire. We should go back to inform them of what... transpired here."

Her voice trailed off as Oberon, Ophelia, and the two instigators of the incident returned from where they had squirreled themselves away during the shootout, Oriana rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. Miranda sported an indifferent look, but her body language – namely the way she refused to make eye contact with anyone – told a different story.

Eve nodded slightly at her two retainers, scanning the wreckages of the Ymir mechs littering the forest and outstretching a hand, palm upwards. To everyone's shock, the twisted, mangled bits of metal floated upwards, trailing through the air to be gently stowed upon the truck in an orderly fashion, all without the characteristic blue glow of Biotic powers.

As much as Shepard wanted to ask who and what she was right then and there, he caught a glimpse of his fellow SPECTRE nodding meaningfully towards the distant village. Shepard decided to trust his judgement. After all, he was both his senior and had been around the group of so-called 'synthetics' for weeks now. If he didn't deem them a threat, the Shepard would trust them for now.

Instead, he signalled for his ground team to gather 'round. "We're heading back," he said, turning almost immediately to speak to Eve. "Please join us after you are finished."

"Are you walking back the entirety of the trek?" Eve asked, motioning to the truck. "There is still some space, if you do not mind the squeeze."

Shepard barely spared the vehicle a glance, piled high with sparking wrecks, before shaking his head vehemently. Not only was the squeeze a little too tight for his liking, but there wasn't enough space for everyone. He wasn't the type to abandon his team.

So Shepard declined, his tone softer than his initial refusal. It didn't hurt to be nice, after all. "My apologies, but I doubt we'd all fit. We'll walk back." He shifted his weight between his feet, voice growing more stern and authoritative. "After you've finished your business with the people, please come to the Normandy. It's the frigate landed outside of the clinic. You can't miss it. We have much to discuss – especially the cure you made for the people."

The woman in white nodded, silently hopping on the truck with her 'daughter', her butler and maid following suit with the twins already in the driver's seat. The engine rumbled before it took off down the winding path to civilization, leaving Shepard, his team, and the other SPECTRE behind.

Shepard then realized something, turning to address his fellow SPECTRE. "Why didn't you go with them, SPECTRE Jondum? It would be nice for them to have someone accustomed to the locals help them explain."

The Salarian shook his head, beginning the long walk to the settlement. "The locals don't like me. It seems they were raided by a pirate gang with Salarian members in the past. It's better to let her do the explaining."

"Are you sure that they won't use this chance to spin some tales against us?" Tali'Zorah chimed in, hurrying her steps to keep up with the pace of the two SPECTREs. Her mask did little to hide her suspicion. "From what you've told us, they're on good enough terms to have the locals believe them over us. Not to mention that the locals don't know that they're synthetic."

The Salarian shook his head once more. "If that was so, they could've let me die a week ago. More efficient, less exposure, less risk. Simple."

Tali glared at the Salarian, unable to come up with why he was so adamant on defending the synthetics. In her eyes, it was clear that they weren't human – after all, no ordinary girl is capable of such movement and reaction time, Biotics notwithstanding.

But it was Shepard who spoke next, a frown plastered across his face. "You speak like you know that they're synthetics. Didn't you tell us on the Normandy earlier that you weren't sure?"

The whole entourage now turned to look at the Salarian, who, to his credit, didn't look the least unperturbed. "There was a lack of evidence. Like I said before, the medical scanner didn't show anything out of place. Only a few anomalies. Hard to believe without an eyewitness. Unreliable."

"You're saying that seeing them phase through a solid wall isn't good enough evidence?" Shepard commented dryly, earning himself a few nods of approval from his eavesdropping grounds team.

"At the time? Yes." Was Jondum's reply. "Look at the Vorcha. Adapted to hazards in one generation. Thought to be impossible before we made contact with them."

"Fair enough," Shepard concurred, "but what about your opinion on them?"

Jondum fell silent for a long while, leaving only the echo of footsteps and the rustling of foliage. It was only until the white gleam of the settlement came into sight that he spoke once more. "Apologies. It was hard to come up with an answer for you, Commander Shepard. As the humans say, it was gut instinct form watching the earlier battle. Nothing conclusive."

His answer, Shepard noted, showed the one thing that linked all Salarians together: scientific people hated to draw any conclusions based on a hunch while lacking hard evidence.

Wrex spoke up suddenly, surprising all present as high gruff, rumbling voice rang out. "I don't think that wasting time speculating will get anything done here. If they're really hostile, what stopped them from killing us here in the woods? Have you forgotten what they're capable of?"

Indeed, if the little synthetic girl could beat an Ymir mech before they could intervene, it was unlikely that Shepard and his team would pose a threat to her. Not to mention that they've been here for weeks already without acting maliciously. That meant that the supposed synthetics didn't have a reason to be hostile towards organic beings, and with it opened the possibility of a negotiation if needed.

Assuming that they weren't in league with the Reapers and that no indoctrination was occurring – then again, if they've already indoctrinated people, why let Shepard and his team live if they pose an obvious threat? No, he would give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Shepard turned to address his team, features stern. "Double up, people! Let's get back to the Normandy!"

* * *

It took them another half hour before they reached the settlement. Once there, it became apparent that Tali's fears were unfounded: no angry mobs lined up to take the Normandy apart, no gunmen hid on the rooftops – heck, even the clinic was still open, people walking in and out with their regular business.

_Of course, _the young Quarian thought irritably, _they don't know a thing about those synthetics._

A hand clasped her shoulder firmly, causing her to start. She turned, coming face-to-face with Shepard. "What are you thinking, Tali?"

Tali distanced herself slightly. "Nothing. Just… It was…"

"We'll know soon enough," he said, cutting to the chase and gesturing to the Normandy. They were the only ones not on board. "Are you sure that the scanner we got from Feros is usable on organics? I want to know just in case."

Tali understood the implication. "Positive. Should I prepare it?"

Shepard nodded. "I'll take full responsibility."

The duo walked into the cargo bay, with Shepard heading to the command deck with the rest of the team while Tali stayed behind to prepare the equipment, her only company being a couple of Alliance crewmen guarding the ramp.

She didn't have to wait long – after completing a final check, the guards disappeared down the ramp, presumably to talk to someone. Moments later, they reappeared, suspected synthetics in tow.

Tali's Omni-Tool beeped, receiving an incoming message from Shepard. _Scan them and bring them to the meeting room. Do not act upon any discoveries until everyone are together. Alert me if they disagree with this arrangement._

She let out a sigh of relief; Shepard had everything covered, albeit with some unnecessary instructions. She might not like sentient synthetics, but she wasn't the type to open fire the moment she sees one unless they're hostile, armed, or Geth.

Besides, they interested her greatly. No synthetic should be able to do what they could do – move through solid objects like ghosts, fight effortlessly without firearms, make objects disappear into thin air, and heal the most grievous of injuries with a mere touch.

Until she could get a good grasp of their characters – or rather, their programming and logic, she would give them the benefit of the doubt.

Before the guard could guide them any further, Tali intercepted them and relayed the parts of her orders that directly affected them, watching closely for any visible reactions.

The butler was unreadable, much like her, due to the opaque mask that covered his face. The maid maintained an impressively impassive face, but it was the smaller two of the group that grabbed her attention.

The first, the tiny brunette synthetic in the pinstripe dress – the one who took down the Ymir mechs, her brain supplied – glanced at Tali curiously in the most human way. Eerily human, especially when combined with her doll-like features.

As for the smallest one's supposed 'mother', her face was just as blank as that of the maid. Her eyes, however, seemed to pierce through Tali's mask with beams of gold, reading everything that made up her soul. The synthetic broke eye contact, stoically stepping into the scanner.

As Tali was trying to interpret the underlying meaning of their behaviour, the woman in white called out to her, voice melodic and soothing. "Miss Tali'Zorah, may we proceed?"

_That _snapped the Quarian out of her thoughts. "How do you know my name? No one's introduced us."

Eve's lips curled upward slightly, forming a coy smile as she waved her hand regally.

At first there was nothing. Suddenly, small ripples in the air appeared over the synthetic's shoulder, a black drone with identical features to Remy appearing and hovering silently over its summoner.

Tali, about to speak, was abruptly cut off. "Please. I believe this matter is best discussed with the others."

The Quarian sighed grudgingly, activating the scanner. The results were produced in seconds, confirming her suspicions: the woman in white was made of inorganic materials, but the scan couldn't penetrate deep within her body. The same energy field that surrounded Remy surrounded her, preventing anything from reaching beyond skin-deep.

Silently, Eve swapped places with the brunette, who shifted uncomfortably with a slightly pink face as the scanner swooped past, as if embarrassed. She was soon followed by the butler and the maid, both stoic and silent. But all of them shared the same results – composed of an unknown alloy, penetration stopped at the surface.

Tali downloaded the results to her Omni-Tool, speaking to the guards. "We're finished here. I'll lead them to the Commander."

The guards, although Alliance Navy, obeyed. And so the young Quarian gestured silently to the visitors and lead the way, suppressing the urge to ask them ceaseless questions until she reported her findings to Shepard and let him do the questioning first.

* * *

_"Commander, I'm here with our guests."_

"The door is unlocked. Come in."

Shepard watched from his seat next to his fellow SPECTRE as the meeting room door slid open, allowing Tali and their 'guests' to come inside. He silently gestured towards the empty seats that the crew prepared beforehand, watching as they sat down – all except for one.

Eve still stood at the entrance, eyes fixed to something beside him. Before he could ask, Remy shot out, reunited with the black counterpart by Eve's side. The two circled each other momentarily, before Remy settled on Eve's outstretched hand like a bird returning to its master.

Slowly, Eve patted Remy's 'head', seemingly oblivious to the attention focused on her. Releasing her hold, Remy rejoined her twin, standing sentry behind Eve.

Upon noticing her gaze, Eve curtsied politely. "My apologies. It has been months since I have seen her last, Commander."

Strange behavior aside, Shepard didn't know how to respond beyond asking her to take her seat.

She complied obediently, taking the seat between the butler and maid – who left said space vacant, as if it were specifically for her. Finally, the meeting could begin.

Shepard coughed to gain everyone's attention. "First things first; I want to thank you all for creating a cure of the Thorian spore and sharing it with us. Without it, many people would be suffering for life. However, we still want to make sure that it's safe for use."

Manipulating his Omni-Tool, Shepard projected a page that held the medicine's formula for them all to see. The two smallest guests scrutinized it carefully, before nodding. "What you have presented is the correct formula. It will work on humans," Eve said almost gently "although I would advise you to conduct proper safety tests before utilizing it on other species. We have no alien patients to try it on, after all."

Shepard nodded, sending the data package to Dr. Chakwas for further analysis and hopefully synthesis of a cure, before turning to his tech expert. Taking her cue, Tali projected another hologram that displayed the wireframes of Eve, Anchor, Oberon, and Ophelia. "I scanned them with the research machine like you requested." Here she paused briefly, hesitating over her words. "There was a lot of interference around them – like a force field. I think it could be able to fool inferior equipment and trick them into thinking they're organic."

"So they're synthetic?"

Tali nodded, before swinging her head around with the others to face Eve, who had begun to clap.

"Your position is well earned, Commander Shepard," she said, voice blank and earning a hard look from the man in question. "Your actions speak for yourself. You do not take my words at face value; instead you utilize a scientific approach. It is appreciated."

The praise did little to improve Shepard's mood. "Although I appreciate what you've done, Eve, I want to know what made you help the colonists. They're organic, after all."

The synthetic maid's eye twitched slightly – her first change in facial expression since entering the ship – as if she took offense at his words for her mistress. She was silenced before she spoke, however, by a curt glance from Eve.

"And why should I not help them?"

Although she answered a question with a question, it made them all stop and think about what they thought they knew about synthetics in general.

After all, synthetics dictated their actions with cold, hard, calculating logic – sentiment and sympathy didn't factor in. They had to have a reason – something to gain, something to lose through inaction. Acting on a whim, as Eve had implied, shouldn't be possible.

True, her answer still had a sort of logic in that she had no reason to refuse to help the colonists, but if one were to look deeper they would realize that to help meant to sacrifice something, whether it is money, materials, or time. In the end, it was illogical for any synthetic to do so.

As Shepard contemplated what to say, Tali turned to him, her body language conveying her silent request. Shepard nodded his consent, allowing the young Quarian to stand up and speak. "I want to ask who created you, Eve. Were they Prothean?"

Eve quirked an eyebrow impassively, as did everyone else in the room. Their actions prompted Tali to pull out her Omni-Tool, proving more data from the scans. "The scanner estimated Eve's age, and placed it at more than fifty thousand years old. The drone – Remy – is a few thousand years younger, same as the butler and the maid." She then turned to Anchor, who seemed to flinch under the sudden attention. "But this one is too young. Created less than a year ago."

Ophelia narrowed her eyes at Tali, taking offence that she called her mistress an 'it,' although she restrained herself as Eve closed her eyes, deep in though. Because all eyes were on Eve, no one noticed the maid's displeasure except for Shepard, making careful note of Eve's ability to make them all fall in line without directly commanding so.

It was all so like his strange series of dreams, which he was almost tempted to call visions of the future. Did this mean he was going to meet the other synthetic – Ferdinand – as well?

His musings were cut short as Eve spoke after a long pause. "My creators did not call themselves 'Prothean', if that is what you ask." She then gestured around her, to all the other synthetics, including the drones. "Moby and Remy are my creations, as are Oberon, Ophelia, and Anchor." With each name came a gentle, sincere smile, before she turned back to address Tali. "It was only I who lived during the era of my creator."

_In other words, direct all questions to her, _Shepard mused inwardly.

"So, there's another spacefaring civilization that existed in the time of the Protheans?" Liara T'soni stood, eyes doing little to conceal her excitement at a chance to interview someone who was alive during ancient times, the fact that they were synthetic doing little to bother her. "What did they look like? How come there's no mention of them in Prothean Beacons? Did they fall to the Reapers as well?"

Eve gave the Asari a cryptic yet sad smile, as if the questions reminded the synthetics of the darkest memories of the past – as if any synthetic could understand emotion like that.

After another moment of silence, Eve answered, her face somber. "We could not exit our own planet when we fell; else my creators may still exist. Perhaps as nomads like the Quarian."

At the mention of her people, Tali glared accusingly at the synthetics. "So you betrayed your creators, wiping them out because you didn't have a reason to coexist with them, didn't you?!"

Shepard thought that such a comment would have angered the synthetics, if they really had emotions. Unsurprisingly, Eve shrugged it off, but what was truly surprising was her response. "It was the other way around. We, the Nasod, were wiped out by our creator. I am a survivor from that era."

Tali, surprised yet undeterred, continued her questioning. "But why don't they exist anymore, if you didn't wipe them out?"

Now that was the question; why were Eve's organic creators no longer around if they exterminated her kind in a supposed organic-synthetic war?

They didn't have to speculate for too long, as Eve spoke once more. "You recall that our civilization had yet to reach the stars?" Receiving a round of nods, she glanced at the ceiling as she dropped them bomb, voice hushed to a low, pained whisper. "…The war destroyed what little resources remained and civilization crumbled. No one won in the end."

Silence fell upon the occupants of the room, broken by Jondum himself. "I'm skeptical that a war could devastate a non-spacefaring civilization to the point of the extinction. There is more to this story, no?"

Eve hesitated, before letting out a heaving sigh. "Yes, there is more, but I am afraid you will not believe me."

"Try me," Shepard challenged, the others agreeing with silent nods.

Eve glanced about the room, and, seeing their determined looks, began with another question. "Tell me, Commander Shepard. Have you ever seen a planet die? Not a star, just a planet – like the one we currently sit on."

The members of the room glanced about, before Wrex shot her a savage grin, chuckling. "So what? Did your creator bathe their planet in a nuclear firestorm like us in an effort to beat you Nasod? Then I'd have to give you credit for putting up such a fight, even if it's regrettable to resort to extremes."

Eve shook her head, her next question ominous. "Have you ever encountered a planet that should be teeming with life, but isn't? Despite the fact that every analysis – soil, atmosphere, position from a fixed star – saying that it should?"

Now even Wrex blinked in confusion, unable to answer and leaving Kaida to pick up after receiving permission from Shepard. "After so many discoveries, I don't know how to answer that. Look at the Rachni or Vorcha; their homeworlds are so bad that everyone says it's impossible to support life, but those guys somehow lived on. I'm not sure what counts as the driving force to make life grow on any given planet."

Eve shot the human Biotic a thankful smile, rising to her feet. "I will tell you the tales of my creator's ancestors, passed down for generations. They may sound like myths, but as the saying goes: history become tales and tales become myth due to the passage of time." She turned to Shepard, her smile courteous. "With your permission, of course."

Shepard's gaze pierced her cold, artificial eyes as if to search for trickery, but eventually he caved and allowed her to speak, trusting the knowledge that synthetics tendencies made them honest – as proven by the AI Kaidan discovered on the Citadel, who kindly explained what it was doing despite its designated purpose to be a thief.

Eve stepped forwards into the center of the room, the seats surrounding her like a classroom watching a teacher. As Eve raised her hands, she paused, eyes flickering towards the ceiling where the lights shone. Understanding, Shepard tapped his Omni-Tool, the room darkening in an instant.

"Thank you, Commander Shepard," Eve said cordially, her eyes glowing in the darkness that befell the room, illuminating her small smile. Then her eyes glowed brighter, hands stretching out to materialize multiple layers of holographic hexagons and unknown alphabets that linked together and expanded from her core, spinning around her slowly.

Ashely's hand jumped to her sidearm like Tali, the others contenting themselves with watching from their seats. It was only when an image of a planet formed that they removed their hands, watching in stunned silence.

"No portable device should be able to produce such a high-quality image… It looks so real," Tali muttered.

Shepard coughed purposed, glaring at the Quarian. She apologized quietly, sitting back down to watch the image of the planet covered in unnatural black clouds.

"In ancient times, life was born into the world," Eve began, the next image encompassing the room. It showed the surface of the planet, covered in perpetual black clouds, unpenetrated by sunlight. No rain touched the desolate landscape, covered with only rocks and sand for as far as the eye could see, shadows resembling humanoid lifeforms flickering briefly. "It was an unforgiving world, barely able to support life. Still, the tenacity of life knew no bounds – they lived on this hostile world, but civilization was beyond their grasp in the daily struggle for survival."

Liara nodded in agreement, undoubtedly being the most interested person in the room, being an archaeologist and all.

Eve continued, her expression serious. "One day, a meteorite fell from the sky, and with it, the foundation of life." The image shifted again, showing the dark clouds in the sky parting for an object that came crashing down to the ground. Once the dust settled, it revealed that the 'meteorite' in question was actually a huge crystal, much bigger than Destiny Ascension class Dreadnought! And around it, plant life began to grow.

Every organic eye then turned towards the narrator, who shrugged delicately. "This is a myth from the time were civilization did not exist. I merely relay it to you as it was told by my people."

The image slowly retreated to the sky, watching the crater of the gigantic gem's impact site. The green of life slowly expanded outwards, storm clouds breaking up and receding as rain finally fell, filling oceans and fertilizing the land.

"So this is how you tell fairy tales to your children fifty thousand years ago?" Wrex commented wryly with a lizard-like grin. "Surely ancient times were more comfortable than the present." A chuckle escaped Kaidan's mouth, earning both a hard look from Shepard telling them to be quiet.

Eve glanced around, and, seeing that they were currently no questions, returned to her storytelling. She got no further than the beginnings of cities being constructed around the gem before Liara cut in, pointing at the figures of the men and women. "Aren't those humans? I thought that fifty thousand years ago they were still primitives in caves – sorry Commander."

The young Asari looked sheepish, but the SPECTRE paid no mind and questioned Eve. "Why do your creators look human? Were they human as well?"

Eve gave the duo an amused smile, gesturing to the Asari. "Perhaps. Why is this a surprise when everyone in this room comes from all corners of the galaxy yet share many traits, from being biped, humanoid shape to the function of most - if not all - inner organs?"

"I see your point." Shepard agreed reluctantly, while the Salarian SPECTRE didn't look disturbed by this development, explaining as Shepard gave him a questioning look.

"Throughout history, many sentient species we discovered tended to appear as how Eve explained. We speculate from the ruins and the Beacons that even the Prothean shared the same basic body structure as other biped sentient species."

Shepard coughed a few times, the suddenness of the action catching Jondum's attention. Not wanting to reveal his classified knowledge, Shepard dismissed it as saliva getting caught in his throat.

The Salarian didn't press further, returning his attention to the projection in the room that now depicted the ancient 'human-alien' civilization on Eve's home planet. Shepard took the chance to glance around the room, realising that most of his ground crew looked at him nervously, Ashley even going to far as to motion subtly to the Salarian next to him.

_Oh yeah, there's all that news we need to break to the council without political backlash on all humanity…_

Shepard's thoughts were bitter, but he shook them away. There was no need to worry about that yet, especially when Jarvik still secured in Alliance's custody aboard Arcturus Station.

Shifting his gaze back to the projection, Shepard found himself looking at a modern city on par with other spacefaring civilizations. Hundreds of air cars, or whatever their equivalent was, roamed the air in pseudo-streets that spread throughout the entire metropolis. Organic beings crowded the streets like an army of ants getting to work, airships floating in the bright sky above massive towers.

"As life grew, so did civilization." Eve's melodious voice pulled everyone back to the screen, watching as it faded into a motionless picture of a laboratory. The operating table held a 'human' male, while the 'surgeon' held his bare hand above the man's chest. A soft green glow emitted from his palm, pouring downwards onto the sleeping patient. "While my creators could not reach the stars, it does not mean that other areas of advancement were not made.

"As with all life, their mortality became the driving factor towards betterment." The image was replaced by one of a baby growing up, gradually withering away and dying. "In my creator's case, this was more important than finding what lay beyond the skies. Give the state of their home world before the gem of salvation arrived, it is not surprising."

Shepard noted the way Eve said 'gem of salvation', guessing that she didn't like the term itself, but something was holding her back from using the term she wanted to. Maybe she didn't believe the tale? Beyond that, it was still clear that her home world was uninhabitable, and then suddenly something changed. Terraforming, maybe? Uplifted by an alien? There were so many possibilities, yet no way of finding out as the home world no longer existed.

Tali'Zorah was the first to connect the dots. "So you were born out of your creator's desire of immortality, not because they needed an automated workforce?"

Eve waved a hang, the image of a mechanical man appearing in some sort of laboratory. "At first, it was an attempt to preserve the minds of the most brilliant thinkers, scientists, and important persons after their organic body could no longer be sustained. After a while, they realized this procedure could also create artificial life, one with a metal body instead of flesh and blood yet sentient all the same. Thus. We, the Nasod, were born."

Shepard noticed the little synthetic girl fidget; eyes glued to what Eve called a first generation Nasod. Her behaviour, combined with the knowledge of her creation date, made Shepard wonder if she was also created via 'brain uploading'. He decided he would ask later.

Now the image showed a work place of some sort, where 'human' and 'Nasod' worked together in harmony, uncaring of whether one was of flesh and blood or not. Unlike the other images, this once was vivid and bright, as if it had been recorded recently.

It was what sparked the Salarian SPECTRE's interest as he interjected. "Are these your personal memories?"

"Yes, SPECTRE Jondum," Eve replied, her eyes close in reminiscence. "They are from a better time of our civilization, when we coexisted with our creator."

Tali spoke up again, tone impatient. "What happened? You mentioned a planet's death, but I don't see how this is relevant to the topic of your creator betraying you."

Eve sighed, eyes fixated on the Quarian. "Yes, I was getting there." The image shifted again, looking from space at Eve's now blue and green planet."

"Just like the season of harvest, all good things must come to an end."

As they went back to the surface they saw that a dark cloud slowly began to expand across the globe. Rain ceased, oceans dried up, and plant life began to die. With it, the lights that littered the metropolises of the world died out one by one.

"After centuries of peace and prosperity, the planet began to die." Eve's voice rose ominously, echoed by the vision of her planet plunging into darkness. "Everything died as the gem of salvation" there was that reluctance to use that term again "died, the life energy it carried beginning to fluctuate."

"Wait, wait – did you say life energy?" Tali asked in surprise, unsure of what to make of the term the synthetic used.

"Yes, Miss Tali'Zorah, life energy." Eve paused, elaborating slightly. "It is what made all life flourish. Without it, there is no such life. My creators learned to harness and control the energy to their will, using it in place of fossil fuels and atomic energy."

Seeing that everyone minus the synthetics were still disbelieving, Eve sighed. "Think of it as another energy source or mineral – like this Element Zero of yours, if you will. Regardless, as a result of the overuse of energy, the planet died… and so our creator and their creations died as well."

Tali was about to ask another question, but Eve spoke before she could. "To answer your question, all of our technology required life energy to work, extended to the Nasod as well."

Another wave of a hand, and the image shifted to a meeting hall of sorts that strongly reminded Shepard of the United Nations General Assembly Hall he once saw in history files. Unlike the history of Earth, this one was a gathering of machine and men, split straight down the middle. Although there was no sound, it was clear from their body language that neither side agreed to whatever they're discussing.

Eve's narrative solidified his suspicions.

"Cries for help were dismissed. Once crisis reared its ugly head, no one cared for anything more than their own kind. And when both sides are competing for the same resources, conflict is inevitable. And thus began the war between machine and men."

The solemn tone made Shepard think that Eve regretted what happened thousands of years ago, although with her being a synthetic he was slightly skeptical.

The image shifted to a dimly lit laboratory, dozens of human-sized capsules lining the walls, humanoid silhouettes filling each one.

"My people were losing, outnumbered and losing power by the day. Many recognized the battle was for naught. Whoever was victorious would only savor the spoils of victory for a fleeting moment, before they too joined the losers in death when the planet could no longer sustain them, reverting to another lifeless rock in the cosmos."

The image then turned to a small chamber, where a white haired woman identical to Eve, albeit with a plainer dress and less elaborate locks – activated another stasis capsule. "I was amongst those who managed to return to our preservation pods. We were hidden from civilization and spread amongst the world, hoping that one day we could emerge and rebuild…"

Eve let out a hollow sigh, one Shepard recognized as on many war veterans used. Soon enough, the image shifted to a ruined bunker, where Eve from the past emerged. "I do not know what became of the others. I can only assume they are dead. When I was released from stasis, the only thing left behind were the ruins of the cities of my time. A testimony to the civilization that once existed."

The images faded to nothingness, the rings surrounding Eve fading as she finished her story in darkness. "I perfected my knowledge of the dimensional layer theory, still but a theory during the Golden age of men and machine, to move between dimensions…[1]"

She then glanced at the Salarian SPECTRE. "You have seen a basic manifestation of that ability – cloaking. Its advanced form allowed me to travel amongst the stars without the need of a starship. It was during my journey that I created Oberon and Ophelia to keep me company," here she gestured to her silent retainers, then motioning at Anchor "and I have recently adopted Anchor, or rather, rescued her from certain demise and provided her a physical form. We have continued to travel, and have been travelling ever since."

Silence permeated the room as everyone contemplated what they just heard. In Shepard's opinion, the extinction of an entire race despite winning a war weighed heavily on her, as the lone survivor of her age.

Shepard wondered if he should introduce her to Javik – he heard that those who had gone through similar tragedies could connect to each other better than anyone else.

The silence was broken as Tali shot up from her seat. "What's your mission?" Catching the questioning glances, Tali re-worded her question. "I mean, for what purpose did your creator bring you to life?"

The synthetic crossed her arms, head raised almost petulantly, yet regally. She answered quietly, voice low. "I am an architect, Miss Tali'Zorah."

Tali nodded, inquiring further. "So, now that your creators are no more and your kind is dead, what do you plan to do?"

Eve glanced at Shepard briefly, replying with a pained smile. "All I can do is unlock the mystery of my planet's death, and hope that no other civilization suffers the same fate as we did."

"That sounds like an impossible task," Shepard remarked.

Eve narrowed her eyes at Shepard, but unfortunately he wasn't the only one who thought that her mission was doomed to fail. It did not deter her from sharing more of her story, however. "During my journey… I came across a group of people, all of them on a primitive world that had yet to reach its 'industrial revolution,' as you call it. Despite the fact that they had no technology to ruin their home, their planet still died…"

She paused, her hands crossing behind her back as she inhaled deeply despite not needing air. "I met my first friends there. Although they knew I was different, they still wanted my friendship. We embarked on a quest to save their planet together.

"At that time, I could have cared less about saving their planet. I thought it was impossible, like many of you. I thought we could only delay the inevitable." Then she let out a bitter chuckle. "Then my first friends went ahead and defied all odds, but at the cost of their lives. I could not die with them, for they wanted me to live."

Shepard, Jondum, and the team couldn't help but wonder about the sentient creatures that were capable of saving a planet. In the end, they decided not to pry, deciding that this was out of their area of expertise - or as Joker would put it _'delving into the realm that man are not meant to know'_.

Eve's expression grew determined, hardening into something almost frightful. "That is all the proof I need. It can be done. I do not know how long it will take to perfect, but I will not give up because others deem it impossible."

"I see." Shepard could at least respect her determination. "Still, is this mission of yours related to what you did on Horizon?"

Eve raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying that I should leave them to their demise and concentrate on my objective?"

Shepard practically choked on his saliva, not expecting the direct question. "No! I just thought that it was strange, considered what we know about synthetics."

Eve nodded slightly, before a beep came from the Omni-Tool around her wrist. She excused herself politely, pulled a headset from nowhere to connect to the Omni-Tool, and answered the call. "Yes? This is Eve speaking. Yes. I see…"

The synthetic ended the call, pulling the headset away before turning to address Shepard. "I regret to inform you that we must end our conversation here. The clinic has requested my presence."

Shepard looked to his senior for his opinion. When the elder SPECTRE nodded, he turned back to Eve. "We need some time to think about this as well. You and your… family…" he was still reluctant to believe that these 'Nasod' treated each other as kin "may leave. But we need to discuss this further in the future – perhaps by the end of today if possible. I'll have William escort you out."

At the mention of her name, Ashley shot from her seat and saluted smartly, walking to the door to fulfill her duty.

Eve bowed to Shepard, followed by Oberon, Ophelia, and Anchor, before they made their way towards the exit. Before they left, Eve turned to address them one more time. "If you wish to speak with us, we will be at the clinic for the rest of the day. Also," she motioned towards the white drone, which dutifully followed its twin. "Thank you for taking care of Remy in my stead. It was a marvelous experience to see you and your team on law enforcement missions through her eyes."

Remy seemingly bowed at Shepard, following the synthetic group as they left, guided by Ashley to the cargo bay and leaving the rest tt think upon what they have learned…

* * *

"Milady, why tell them that story?"

The moment they reached the Normandy's entrance and the marines guarding it were no longer in sight, Ophelia was quick to reprimand her mistress for revealing unnecessary information.

Eve didn't seem concerned in the slightest, if her cheery-for-a-synthetic greetings were anything to go by.

Unfortunately for Ophelia, her opportunity for discussing her charge's mishap was put on hold, as there were many patients waiting in their clinic.

It took them an hour, but they managed to clear all the patients and earn some free time. While Oberon was washing the instruments and Anchor was sterilizing them, Ophelia found herself serving tea to her Empress, who finished up the last report of today's activity for further reference when she was no longer here.

As she placed the cup of tea on the table, the Empress finally answered her. "Like I have said many times, Ophelia, a tale deserves a tale. Trust must be given for trust to be received."

Ophelia's eye twitched slightly. "But that –"

"It is too surreal for them," Eve cut her off, "For those who confine their knowledge to what the Prothean have discovered and refuse to find the truth themselves. You think they will not believe us?" Eve asked, knowing what Ophelia was about to say. "Do not fear. They will believe us. Or rather, their current knowledge of synthetics will make them believe us."

"You mean the belief that synthetics cannot lie?"

"Precisely." Eve took a sip of her tea, continuing. "It is not like we _are_ lying to them, no?"

Ophelia contemplated her Empress's words, failing to notice that Anchor joined them and that Oberon was making more tea, despite it being her job.

"Still," Ophelia said once Oberon reappeared. "Even if what you said is true, you have omitted a great deal of facts – like that we are not from this dimension or universe, or that humanity has the potential to save a dying planet with power alone, like our friends."

Eve stared at her face reflected in the tea and sighed. "We must still be careful. I cannot predict how the will react if I tell them that it is the power of humanity that saved a world without the aid of tools or technology. Or what they will do if they know that humans are capable of feats that make 'Biotics' pale in comparison should they apply the same talents on a warrior's path…"An image of Aisha, her old friend, calling forth a thunderstorm sprang unbidden to her mind, one strong enough to destroy hundreds of warships at once.

She then smiled into her cup. "Still, it may not be secret much longer, if the SPECTREs decide to do what I think they will – and that the one to break the news is us."

"Mother," Anchor called out meekly, staring at her reflection in her own warm cup of tea before staring at Eve. "Are we leaving this place with Commander Shepard?"

Eve smiled at her. "I wish we could remain hidden for a little longer, my child. Alas, we could not predict that the epidemic here was connected to what Commander Shepard was investigating, nor did we know that Jondum Bau would arrive here while we were trying to find the cure."

"Nothing is absolute," Oberon said, sharing his own words of wisdom. "Anyone who believes something occurs one hundred percent of the time lacks real world experience; there is always a final percent that may not come to pass."

Eve glanced at her faithful retainer appreciatively. "There is no need to cry over spilled milk," she said with a light chuckle, recalling the last time she heard those words. "We must just 'go with the flow' and adapt."

Anchor nodded enthusiastically. "Should Anchor prepare her things in case we have to go with them?"

Eve looked thoughtful, before shaking her head. "No need to make things complicated, Anchro. What I have said is still a guess. They may not request we leave with them. Besides," she glanced around the room "It is not like we have much to pack up.

Anchor looked around in mimicry of her mother, before it dawned on her. "Can Anchor go play with the other children? They asked Anchor out yesterday, but Anchor and mother were busy then."

"Of course, but return when I call." Eve replied. So, the girl in red skipped away happily. Once the door closed, Eve waved her retainers away, freeing them to do what they wanted as she laid back on her chair and closed her eyes, drifting into the Nasod equivalent of sleep.

It didn't hurt to dream once in a while, after all…

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] Let's face it, if this ability was perfected during the first golden age, there's no need for war since everyone could just evacuate to another planet - or dimension.**

**This chapter filled to the brim with half-truth. While most things that Eve told Shepard group were true, they're true _'From a certain point of view'_ and she left some details out of explanation too.**

**I tried to make it readable even to those who never heard of Elsword before, sorry if this looks like an info dump.**


	13. Chapter 13

**This Chapter was Beta'd by Rosamanelle, please extend your thank to him.**

* * *

**Chapter 13 Risk Assessment**

"So," Shepard greeted the gunnery chief the moment she returned to her seat in the meeting room. "There were no incidents with our guests, Williams?"

Ashely nodded stiffly in confirmation, prompting Shepard to glance around the room before continuing. "Sorry to keep all of you waiting, but given the situation, I think we have much to discuss and delaying won't do us any good – not while our primary objective is still not complete."

Seeing that no one raised any objections, Shepard continued to the topic at hand. "Yet, we cannot leave matters unattended here on Horizon, either – namely the four synthetics."

His SPECTRE guest blinked owlishly. Tali straightened herself in her seat as Kaidan spoke up. "Commander, should we have Dr. Chakwas and Pressly – or Adam – attend this discussion as well?"

Shepard resting his chin on his hand for a moment in thought, before looking around at the room for other opinions. When no one commented, he tapped his Omni-Tool, calling the three officers in question. Before he ended the call, he noticed how dry his throat was and realized that his team was probably in the same condition. "Anyone want a drink? No alcohol, by the way."

The comment instantly lightened the atmosphere, prompting wry smiles from most of his team while Wrex chuckled, being the first to order a drink and followed by the others, minus Tali for the obvious reason.

Though the 'coffee break' wasted a few minutes, Shepard felt that it was the right choice. After all, a proper rest went a long way in clearing one's mind, allowing for proper discussions versus shouting matches – not that they'd be reduced to that point, but the wellbeing of his crewmembers was still appreciated.

With everyone content and present – minus Adam, who had some last minute checks on the engine to perform – Shepard continued with their talk. "What do you think of their story?"

"If we take their words at face value," Liara said, eager to start the conversation again. "I think that it perfectly explains how they could board our ship without anyone being the wiser, or how they can heal organics with a touch." Here she glanced at Jondum, who was the only one to witness the latter event, for confirmation. "However, that means that we have to throw all scientific knowledge we've accumulated over many millennia out of the window and accept these new revelations as the truth."

"To be fair," Tali said slowly, waiting for the Asari to finish as her fingers danced across the Omni-Tool's interface. The yellowish, holographic interface glowed between her and Shepard, showing the notes she had somehow recorded during their earlier conversation with the synthetics. "What they said didn't contradict our scientific knowledge either. To be more precise, no one – not even the Prothean – has ever delved into their field of study before."

"And we humans only had such things in science fiction novels," Kaidan added almost wistfully. "Who would've thought that those writes had this kind of precognition? I wonder what they'd say if they knew that their imaginations were actually real."

Shepard had to clap his hands to get them to quiet down and return to the conversation at hand, allowing Chakwas – who trying to speak for a bit – to share her opinion with the group once given permission.

"With all due respect, Commander, we can disable them and keep their bodies for study. This will ensure that they aren't a threat to us or any colonists."

However, her suggestion wasn't met with approval. On the contrary, many shook their head, including the senior SPECTRE whose very body language stated his opinion before he even spoke. "Not a good idea. Namely, how would you disable them in the first place?"

Chakwas crossed her arms, a frown etched onto her face. "They're synthetic, so I believe they'll be susceptible to the Overload Pulse. As you've said, their 'weapons' are mere swords; I don't think they'd be a threat to us before they short-circuit and disabled."

"A swordswoman that killed three fully-armed Ymir mechs without support fire. Very harmless indeed," Garrus sarcastically remarked, but he still gave the doctor a contradicting smile.

Shepard was surprised to hear the suggestion from the good doctor of all people, however his face remained in his calm expression as he spoke in a neutral tone. "That is quite a… ruthless way to treat others, doctor."

"They're machines made to imitate life, Shepard. There's nothing wrong with my method," Chakwas countered, her voice slightly raised, offended by Shepard's recognition of the synthetics.

Surprisingly, it was Jondum who opposed the most strongly. "I don't approve of it – not only from a moral and ethical viewpoint, but on the basis of practicality." He looked at everyone, speaking slowly and calmly. "They're capable of moving through solid obstacles at will, which means that unless they want to interact with something, there's no way to truly harm them with conventional weapons if they chose to stay intangible."

"So should it come to a fight, the only chance that we have to do damage is when they're about to hit one of us." Shepard concluded, catching on to what Jondum wanted to say. "Not a good idea at all."

The Salarian nodded. "Exactly. It requires that we shoot them down alongside whoever was acting as bait. And on the subject of Overload Pulse; even if it works, it defeats the purpose, as the data they have stored in their memory bank will be damaged if not outright destroyed. Again, this is all speculation. We don't have any knowledge of how they work either; whether they are made of electronic-sensitive equipment or not is unknown. There are _too many _unknown, given how their creators never discovered Element Zero or a Prothean ruin."

"It explains why they still use melee weapons despite being so advanced," Laira chimed in, seemingly diverting the topic due to her excitement. "With such abilities, ranged weapons would become worthless unless for ambush or opening shot in surprise attack..." It was then that she noticed everyone's gaze on her, curling in on herself slightly and smiling meekly. "Sorry Commander. I got carried away…"

Wrex shot everyone his lizard grin, mostly focused on the good doctor. "All this stuff makes me wonder which is the more violent species here."

With everyone's attention now on him, the Krogan decided to pitch in his two cents. "The girl says she's an architect, no? If so, it's not surprising that they know how to heal organics and behave around others."

Seeing everyone's questioning looks, Wrex laughed and addressed Shepard. "It isn't as complicated as you think. I believe that they see themselves as beings synonymous to their names: architects, or creators. Synthetics are also 'things' that can be 'created.' And 'repair' is synonymous with 'heal' for them. Given the girl's past, she'd see her role as an architect overlap with organic doctors who also help birth offspring and heal sick people.

Everyone, minus Shepard and Tali (for the reason that she was wearing a mask) had a gobsmacked expression on their faces. The giant lizard grinned again, enjoying the sight in the brief seconds before Shepard called their attention back.

Then he spoke to Wrex. "You're suggesting -_ again_ \- that we take their words at face value, then?"

Wrex snorted. "It's not like we have any way of proving anything. They never lie, nor did they contradict any other abilities that we know so far. I doubt that they'd make up a story to fool us, Shepard."

Dr. Chakwas, still miffed at the harsh rebuttal, rebuked the Krogan. "I'm still not sure how this is relevant to the topic at hand."

Wrex grinned at the woman before explaining. "They're synthetics made to build, not destroy or fight, which means that they're inclined towards peaceful solutions rather than violent ones." He paused, spreading his arms wide as if making a statement that was so obvious that you'd have to be blind to not see it. "And, seriously speaking, if they were really amoral psychopaths, what's preventing them from murdering everyone in their sleep? They can walk through walls! There's nothing to stop them from masking it as a closed-room murder case, leaving the colonial guards scratching their heads at the impossibility of it all!"

The Krogan chuckled, clasping his hands together. "Remember when we got Remy? Shepard, you told us then that if the owner of the drone wanted to kill us she'd have left a bomb inside the Normandy without us knowing. And that we won't find it until it exploded in our face?"

His reasoning found surprising support in the form of the Quarian. "Though their combat potential is quite worrying, I have to agree with Wrex. We can somewhat trust them." Then she crossed her arms. "We have to keep an eye on them, Shepard. If not because they're a threat, then to protect them from unsavory individuals."

"To make sure that their technology doesn't fall into the wrong hands," Shepard said in response, Tali nodding to confirm his thoughts.

Truth to be told, Shepard was inclined to agree with that stance. There was no way that he would let an organization like Cerberus or Shadow Broker get their hands on such technology – or worse, the Geth or the Reapers. It would spell disaster to the galactic community.

Liara looked rather excited as she made her opinion known. "I'm more interested in what they told us. Not just their creator's civilization, but about life in the universe." She smiled ruefully. "Suffice to say, this showed us how little we know about the cosmos and life even after millennia of transcending to the stars. Only the Goddess may know how many civilizations out there vanished before they could reach to space – what if it was because their planet died? Or rather, how many methods are there to reach for the stars besides Element Zero technology and Mass Relay?"

She conveniently left out the fact that Reapers may have wiped the planet out before anyone could reach the stars. No one on the team said anything otherwise, as there was no concrete proof that such a thing ever happened. Speaking up now would cause more trouble than help.

Still, no one else responded to the young Asari. The information that Eve had shared with them was worrying – yet no one dared to contest its trustworthiness as they all knew that the synthetic had no reason to lie thus far. The only thing that eased their minds was the fact that they could now perform space travel, so a dying planet wouldn't be too difficult to deal with, being able to evacuate and go to another planet easily.

Then there was the fact that out there in the cosmos existed a creature so powerful that it could apparently affect an entire planet and save it from turning into a lifeless rock, albeit at the cost of the creature's own life. Again, they took refuge in speculation, hoping that the creature Eve encountered in the past was the last of its kind and no longer existed.

Shepard felt that it was regrettable. Such a powerful creature would surely add considerable firepower to their side in the war against the genocidal Reapers.

Brining his mind back to the present, Shepard looked to Pressly for his opinion. The chief navigator silently shook his head, telling him that he'd follow Shepard's decision – no matter what.

With that, Shepard spoke loudly to break up the discussion. "If so, I think we should have someone watch over them for the time being." He then looked at his senior meaningfully.

The Salarian, knowing what was about to be asked, shook his head. "No can do, Commander Shepard. It's a waste of talents and resources for me to take them around."

Before Shepard could counter, he raised his hands in a placating manner. "I know what you're thinking, Commander. If they stay with you it'll create misunderstandings with the Councilors, seeing that she's so uncannily modeled after her creator, who in turn looked very human." The Salarian then grumbled. "Given the current Turian Councilor's… attitude, I can say confidently that said scenario is very likely. The last thing we need for him to do is call off your mission because he discovered a humanoid synthetic living in our midst."

Shepard gave the senior SPECTRE a wry smile – it seems the Turian Councilor's attitude was legendary amongst all species, not just human.

Jondum resumed. "That doesn't mean that I'm going to push the matter on you, Commander." Shepard's eye twitched as he tried to decipher the Salarian's meaning, before he continued to speak. "There's the matter of your evaluation. Regulations and standards must be upheld, so I am going to do so in place of the late Nihilus."

The team murmured amongst themselves – SPECTRE working together was unheard of until now. They were, as the Council put it, a one man army that operated mostly alone. Sometimes they employed a few collaborators, but that was just it – collaborations on a mission, never a part of the system. This was surprising, evaluating Shepard notwithstanding.

Yet the Commander wasn't fazed by Jondum's statement, as he had his own plans – namely revealing what Saren planned to do at the most opportune moment. Although his senior seemed to be the open-minded type, he still had to be cautious for the time.

Thus he smiled, extending his hand to his senior, who took the cue and shook it firmly. "I'm glad to have an experience senior aboard, Jondum. I hope we can put a stop to Saren soon."

"Likewise," Jondum said, letting go of the hand before murmuring to himself. "The thief's trail has already gone cold; it's better to do something useful instead of waiting for her to pop up again…"

"Hmm?"

Shepard arched an eyebrow, but his senior didn't notice as he stood up. "So, should we go and collect the synthetics, then?"

The human SPECTRE was about to reply when a stomach growled loudly. All eyes zeroed in on Wrex, who shrugged. "Bickering wastes more calories than fighting, you know."

As if fate smiled upon the Krogan, Ashley's stomach growled as well, cutting off whatever berating comment she was just about to make. She was soon followed by the Quarian, and then Kaidan.

Shepard sighed. "We can bring them aboard after lunch," he commented, typing away on his Omni-Tool to call the ship's cantina.

* * *

Eve stood amongst a throng of children near a small reservoir pond in the farm just outside the village. Her usually impassive face sported a frown as she spotted two soaking wet boys, avoiding eye contact as if they were caught in an act of mischief.

Next to her, Ophelia gazed sternly with crossed arms, intimidated all the children who dared to interrupt her mistress's nap, also the indirect reason why they were as silent as they were now.

To the side were the Lawson twins; the younger was trying to placate two parents, while Anchor knelt over a young girl – also soaked – performing CPR compressions. Around them were dozens of adults, called to the scene at the same time as Eve.

With all evidence there, there was little doubt as to what happened. So, as her daughter was busy trying to save the girl, Eve turned to the suspects in question.

"So," she said calmly, immediately catching the attention of the two guilty boys, who seemed to shrink into themselves further despite the lack of hostility in her tone. "I believe that since my daughter is doing her part, we must do our parts as well, gentlemen."

The two boys gulped and tried to turn from her piercing gaze, but it proved futile once the grieving mother found whom Eve was addressing. She turned away from her unconscious daughter, fury in her eyes. "So you two drowned my daughter?!"

At the accusation, the two boys quickly held up their hands and babbled barely coherent excuses. "It was – good idea at the time – didn't push her! – she said it was hot!"

Suffice to say, the steel-cold hands of Ophelia on their shoulders was enough to shut them up.

Sending her maid a thankful glance, Eve continued to speak. "Now that I have your attention, perhaps you could tell everyone what happened?"

The two boys kept their mouths shut this time – Eve wasn't sure if it was because they were afraid of punishment, or simply because they were afraid of the people gathered. But one thing was certain: the angry mother was certainly not encouraging them to talk.

"You brats! You drowned my daughter and you think you can get away with it?! You –"

Whatever she was trying to say remained unknown, as Miranda – who was merely observing from the sidelines – approached the angry woman and pressed a syringe into her nape, injecting whatever liquid was in it. The mother's angry glare shifted to the brunette, but her eyes rolled back into her sockets as she slumped over.

Ophelia caught the woman and placed her on the ground gently, checking her vitals before dispersing the angry crowd that gathered around Miranda. "She's fine – it was a sedative." Her gaze then met Miranda's, who nodded her thanks.

It gave the woman another point in Eve's mind – which, considering her less than stellar encounters with her particular organization, was quite an achievement whether Miranda knew it or not. After all, in Eve's experience Cerberus was just a terrorist group who used _'human supremacy'_ as an excuse to do whatever they wanted. It wasn't hard to guess what she _half-expected_ Miranda to do, even in front of her sister.

The Empress focused on the present, and, seeing that the two boys weren't talking, turned to the other children. "Can any of you tell us what happened before my daughter arrived?"

Children shifted uncomfortably under the scrutinizing stares, before one boy spoke up nervously. "We were playing hide and seek here," he pointed to the yellow paddy field far away. "Everyone was hiding and I was the seeker. Then I saw Anchor walking on the ridge, so I asked her to help me find everyone."

At that, his friends muttered 'cheater', 'unfair', and 'there can't be two seekers', which would have been funny if it weren't for the situation at hand. Eve noted that Anchor didn't pay any attention, instead focusing on reviving the girl.

The boy continued his story, avoiding the mildly accusatory glares from his peers. "We found almost everyone, but before we could look for the last three we saw Ted and Goyle arguing about something near the pond. When we got closer…"

He quieted here, prompting Eve to glance over at the two suspects who glared threateningly at the witness. However, before the father could start an angry tirade, one portly colonist stepped forwards and shielded the two as he spoke loudly. "Hey, leave my boys out of this! They did nothing wrong!" He then turned to them. "Right?"

The action seemed to spark their confidence, as the two boys spoke loudly and clearly. "Yes dad. We were just hiding in the pond; it's Pansy's fault that she can't swim. She just flailed around and –"

His next words were cut off by his father's hand slapping over his mouth, yet the damage was already done. The other colonists cried in anger, while parent and children started to try and inch away slowly.

Eve sighed. "Ophelia, Oberon, please make sure that no one is killed today." Her servants nodded, opting to stay out of the conversation until they needed to intervene.

However, her worries were unfounded as the colonists merely berated the parents for raising two bullies, discussing an appropriate punishment. Apparently it wasn't the first time that they pulled the kinds of stunts that put others in danger.

Eve and her family were outsiders; she wasn't going to join in on the drama.

Soon, weak coughs caught Eve's attention, seeing that the girl – Pansy – had regained consciousness, Anchor checking over her gently before asking for a dry towel. Coincidentally, her mother woke up as well, seeing that the drug wasn't very strong. Upon seeing her daughter, awake and mostly well, her previous anger melted away as she rushed to her side.

The timing couldn't have been better. Oberon and Ophelia were busy separating colonists from each other, but once the victim woke up and her mother fussed over her loudly, the tension evaporated instantly.

While the girl was mobbed by colonists, Anchor stood up timidly and turned to stand by her mother, avoiding the crowd as Eve called out for them to take her to the clinic for a more thorough look-over and to let her rest.

Soon enough the group split, one taking Pansy to the clinic, while the other dealt with their wayward neighbour and his sons. Eve decided to join the first group, feeling that the other dealt with something too personal to get involved with.

As they trailed behind the colonists, the sound of rushing footsteps resounded as the Lawson twins joined Eve on their trek to the clinic. The older appeared to be having some trouble, before the younger one spoke up, "Eve, can I ask you for some advice?"

"I am not the type to pry into other's matters, Oriana," Eve replied after a long silence, and although she knew what the teen wanted to ask, she couldn't resist but tease the teen a little. "Besides, I have little experience in regards to a love life that I can share with you."

While her poker face showed nothing, the glint in her golden eyes clearly screamed mischief. Anchor regarded Oriana curiously.

"Your jokes still have a long was to go." Oriana shrugged. "Still, seeing that you're a robot, I think this is already an achievement."

"Who knows?" Eve answered cryptically, veering back to the topic. "What would you like to ask, Oriana?"

"Well…" The brunette glanced at her sister, who was more emotionless than even Eve at the moment. "I just… you know… I want to try and convince her to drop out of, um… work…" A massive understatement and everyone knew, but no one mentioned it. "I mean, looking at the recent events – like Eden Prime a couple weeks ago, and even here…"

"Oriana, I – no, _we_ – owe the Illusive Man a debt." Miranda interjected, stressing the word _we_, visibly troubled and trying not to raise her voice. "Even after all of this evidence – if that's what you want to call it – you won't have a peaceful life. You won't even have a family in the first place."

"But…"

Oriana tried to argue, but Miranda glared and continued. "I won't deny that a lot of the things Cerberus does is of questionable ethics, but their mission stays true: to help better mankind and overcome adversary."

Eve didn't say anything, instead listening to Miranda's reasoning. Anchor, however, wasn't quiet, although still quite meek and shy during her retort. "Anchor doesn't think that it's a good excuse to kill innocent children who hadn't done anything wrong."

Miranda almost flinched at the glare from the petite synthetic. Her mouth moved yet no words came from them. She couldn't refute their accusations, especially when the man who lead that particular operation was the Illusive Man's right hand.

Yet she couldn't betray him – not when he had given her so much!

"You'll be the poor subordinate who did nothing to stop your master once his noble goal has changed for the worst."

Eve's voice broke the uneasy silence, surprising both Lawsons. She locked eyes with the older twins and continued. "Being a good subordinate does not mean following your master's every whim. It means ensuring his wellbeing and realizing the goals their master set out to do without being led astray." Her eyes narrowed. "Do not hesitate to stop him when necessary, especially if he has gone too far. Sometimes, the subordinate must make a stand to save the master from themselves."

Eve's answer did little to support Miranda's decision to continue working for Cerberus, but did little to tell her to quit as well. For Miranda, who had only a few friends outside of the organization that either told her to stay or to quit, this was a surprise – even more so considering that a synthetic should only say _'yes'_ or_ 'no'_, not a vague answer like this.

It was an afterthought, though, in consideration to what has been just said. "He has the most experience. He knows better than anyone else."

"That is a weak excuse," Eve said, cutting her off before she could continue. "Alas, your so-called Illusive Man is neither The Prophet nor God. He is still a human being, and all beings make mistakes. It is not a matter of might, but when." The Empress then placed a hand over where her heart would've been had she been human before continuing. "Even a creature of logic such as myself is unable to escape this inevitable truth."

Miranda didn't answer, a given when the Citadel agents standing next to the clinic were considered. Even Oriana had enough wit to drop the matter instantly upon noticing the duo.

The twins looked puzzled, wondering why the two SPECTREs were standing next to the clinic Eve spoke almost ruefully. "They made their decision faster than expected. Truly, this is a day where many things go beyond one's expectations."

Both parties looked at each other, silently bidding them farewell. Miranda was the first to break eye contact, hand slipping out of her sister's grasp despite her tightened grip. A look between her sister and the waiting SPECTREs was enough to prompt her decision.

However, as Miranda stepped past them, she turned back to speak one last time, bringing with her words a glimmer of hope. "I'll give your advice some thought, Eve. Oriana, please stay safe." With that she turned and left, disappearing into the crowd of colonists moments later.

"I'm not a child…" Oriana muttered once Miranda was out of earshot, turning to address the synthetics while sparing a wary glance at the human and Salarian. "Are you two going to be okay?"

Eve smiled, her answer once again cryptic. "Who knows?"

Oriana wanted to slap Eve for being so nonchalant about her uncertain fate until Anchor piped up. "Mother has survived greater threats, Oriana. Anchor is confident we can survive what awaits us."

The child, whom was now a close friend, spoke with such confidence that Oriana couldn't help but agree. Yet a foreboding feeling lingered in her mind, telling her that this might be the last time that they ever heard of each other. It made her reluctant to let them go to the SPECTREs. So she made a decision. "Let me come with you."

Anchor looked uncertain, but Eve gave Oriana a long, hard look before nodding and gesturing towards the SPECTREs. "Then we should not waste more time."

The mother-daughter pair and their tagalong made their way to the agents, Eve greeting them cordially. "Thank you for waiting and allowing my retainers to pass through with the girl."

Shepard nodded slightly and threw a bit of her own words back at her, even if he still wasn't sure if she was the same Eve from his dream. "I believe that we should show you some trust when you have already put so much in us."

"That is good to hear, Commander Shepard." Eve responded, drawing closer until she and her group were a mere three steps away. "What business do you have with us?"

Seeing that there was no point in beating around the bush, Shepard went straight to the point. "Agent Bua and I have reached an agreement. We've decided it would be best for you and your group to come with us."

There was a protest, but not from the synthetics. It was Oriana who spoke up. "On what charge are you taking them away for?" Before they could speak, Oriana inched closer to the group, and then unleashed her rants on the Salarian. "They save me – heck, they saved _you! _If not for them, you and me would be six feet under by now! They're nothing but helpful to everyone, and they only came here because an Eden Prime colonial manager asked them to!"

"Calm down Miss Lawson," Shepard said quickly, holding hands up as he tried to explain things before they blew out of proportion – though he would file the information about Eden Prime for later. "If there were any alternatives to this compromise, I would take that route." His face grew serious. "However, due to the 'special' nature of Eve and her family, we have to put them where they can be monitored by an authority."

That itself opened a new can of worms. Oriana's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're not going to scrap them?"

The way she worded her question made Shepard and Jondum look at each other before looking at Eve, who nodded and verbally confirmed their thoughts. "She knows."

Shepard decided to avoid a headache and speak honestly. "If it depended on me, I wouldn't, but their condition is more delicate that you think. I can assure you that our priority is to keep them from harm."

If Oriana didn't trust them, it didn't show on her face as she huffed. "I'll take your word on that then, Mr. SPECTRE." Suddenly she kneeled down, pulling Anchor into a tight hug.

Anchor let out a half-strangled noise of surprise.

A moment later, Anchor was released from the embrace, her pale face slightly pink – Shepard swore it was a trick of the light. Oriana stood up, patting the synthetic's head affectionately. "Take care. I have to find my sister now. See you later!"

"Please tell the chief to send Hagus our regards, Oriana."

"Sure!"

Anchor and Eve waved to the human as she ran off, disappearing into the village. As if on cue, Oberon and Ophelia came out of the clinic, each carrying a backpack as they walked towards them.

"We have already packed Milady. We're ready to move." He motioned to the SPECTREs, as if letting Eve know who gave them the instructions.

If Eve was displease she didn't show it, merely nodding instead. "We are boarding one of your ships, I presume?"

Jondum spoke quickly. "The Normandy. My shuttle doesn't have the space."

His senior's words brought memories of his 'shuttle' to mind, barely bigger than the Normandy's cargo bay. There was no way all four of the synthetics would fit in there.

Without further ado, Shepard nodded at Jondum and the two guided the synthetics back to the Normandy.

* * *

"So." After they trekked all the way to the cargo bay in silence, Shepard decided to spark a conversation, "Are you worried about Miss Lawson?"

"Do not worry," Jondum reassured them quickly. "We have no intentions of involving innocent civilians if we can help it. She's a victim, not an instigator. Even with knowledge of your true nature, she's but one person who cannot sway the masses. Well, with trillions of rumors and conspiracies flying around every day, we don't really consider her a threat."

"I was only partially worried," Eve replied as they made their way up the cargo ramp, her hands crossed behind her back. "Given the situation, us coming with you is the best option now that a Cerberus operative knows of us and still lives to tell the tale."

That made Shepard almost stumble. "What? There was another Cerberus operative on this planet?"

Eve nodded. "You've met her already, inspector."

Jondum's eyes widened, making Shepard briefly wonder if they'd fall out of his sockets as the senior SPECTRE connected the dots. "The older one, correct?"

"The younger twin told me. She wanted me to persuade her to leave the organization."

"Judging by your words, it didn't end well," Shepard commented dryly as they passed by the marines guarding the ramp to the cargo bay. The two guards saluted before he returned to the conversation.

Eve felt a tug at her sleeve. When she turned to look, she saw Anchor staring at her with worried face.

"Mother, doesn't this make Oriana in danger?"

Jondum was the one who answered. "We have no policy that dictates we arrest unrelated relatives of criminals. Though I do think some monitoring is required, but just to protect her."

Anchor's face lit up, Eve making another comment. "From what I gathered, the elder who is with Cerberus joined it to help protect Oriana. A deal, perhaps."

Jondum nodded, drumming his fingers over his Omni-Tool. "That could be true. We might be able to persuade her to defect or give some intelligence to the STG. Makes life easier."

"It's far-fetched, but it could work," Shepard commented lightly, turning to face Eve. "Still, I'm surprised you didn't eliminate Miss Lawson once you learned she was a Cerberus operative."

Eve's eyes flashed questioningly. "What makes you think I would do that?"

"Your actions on Eden Prime," Shepard replied easily, passing through the locker section, a few marines chatting at a table to the side. "From your conversations and the file Admiral Hackett gave me, we've learned that you brutally murdered Kai Leng and his followers after they demolished part of a hospital and killed dozens of civilians."

Suddenly he stopped walking. "Based on this incident and combined with the evidence that suggests that Henry Lawson is in league with Cerberus, I thought that –"

"That I would conclude that Cerberus is evil and must be eliminated, correct?" Eve asked, not expecting an answer. "When you find a rotten apple in a box, do you conclude that the remaining apples are also rotten?"

"You're suggesting that not all of them are psychopaths," Shepard guessed, barely registering Tali as she walked towards them from the spherical drive core at the end of the deck.

"Anchor almost made that mistake," Eve's 'daughter' suddenly said, her head hanging as if in shame. "Mother told Anchor that not everyone is born evil, and that we don't know every individual's circumstances so we should judge everyone by their reasons – not by what they belong to."

Shepard quirked a brow in surprise at the young being's maturity. On one hand, it meant that the creator of these 'Nasod' were extremely advanced to the point where they could easily replicate the minds of organic beings to this extent - despite never reach the stars (But it's not like robotic science has anything to do with astrophysics in the first place). On the other, it could simply be the fact that given what they went through recently, they either matured quickly or broke down mentally.

Eve patted her synthetic daughter on the head, speaking soothingly. "She's a fast learner, Commander Shepard. Although I wish she could have grown at a steady pace, circumstances have forced our hands." She sighed. "Perhaps it is a sign that the era of peace is about to end."

Shepard couldn't help but think how right she was - for a different reason - before addressing the Quarian and engineer, Adam, who had come to see them. "Adam, Tali." Each saluted to him, prompting Shepard to shake his head. "At ease, I'm here for the living arrangements for our newest additions."

Adam glanced at the four synthetics, whistling in shock. "You're right, Tali. The resemblance is uncanny, especially because they're from the Prothean era."

Tali huffed but didn't respond, instead turning to speak directly to Shepard. "Are you sure it's wise for them to stay on the engineering deck, Commander?"

What she left unsaid was an implication – the implication that if they went rogue, they'd be in the best place to cripple the Normandy in one fell swoop.

Before Shepard responded, Eve decided to cut to the chase the best way she knew how to – through action.

Her form suddenly glowed a faint blue before she vanished in a blink of the eye, Adam growing wide-eyed in panic as he looked around for her. Shepard realized the unsaid message, made clear when Eve's voice rang out from behind the door they had just passed through.

"If I wish to harm you, where I am on this ship is not relevant." The synthetic in white walked through the entrance again, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she saw the Quarian's surprised look. Apparently she was enjoying herself. Her lips curled into a half-smile. "If I am right about the layout, the only place that does not contain critical machinery or weaponry is the captain's quarters, but staying there may create… misunderstandings."

From the way Tali fidgeted uncomfortably and Adam's face turned red, Shepard was certain they were thinking something dirty. Forcing himself to remain stoic, Shepard called the security. "Security, did the camera on the engine deck record what just happened?"

The reply was laced with surprise as the marine reported. _"Aye Commander. It was surreal; one moment the woman in white was talking to you, then next thing I know she's outside the engine room! No flashes, sparkles, nothing. She just appeared!"_

"Thank you for your report soldier. Return to your duties." He closed communications and sighed at the awkward silence. "Any objections?"

Seeing Eve move through solid objects seemed to convince them. Tali snorted. "I'm starting to wonder what your creators used to protect personal belongings."

Eve shrugged delicately. "This ability was studied by my creator and my kind, but war broke out before many advancements could be made." Her fingers brushed her chin as if she was in deep thought. "This does not mean that I have not come across an _organic_ or two with similar abilities during my travels, though."

All organics had to suppress a shudder when they were reminded of the wildly powerful beings somewhere out there in the cosmos. They comforted themselves with the thought that the chances of meeting one was next to nothing, or that they lived in a system with no Mass Relay access.

_"At least we know that Cthulhu can't drive this pal insane. Now we know who to send if we make first contact with one," _Joker's voice suddenly called out over the intercom, mirth in his tone.

Shepard gave an exasperated sigh. "Joker, tell me that you didn't call just to tell me a bad joke."

The intercom was silent for a brief moment, before Joker turned serious. _"We've got a new report from STG, sir. It was marked as urgent and regards Saren."_

Shepard spared the group a brief glance before playing the message from STG, passing it to SPECTRE Jondum when he was done.

Moments later, Shepard called out again. "Joker, set course for Feros. We'll drop of the cure quickly, six hour tops! Call everyone on board, we're leaving!"

_"Aye aye, Commander!"_

He turned to his senior. "Are you sure that your shuttle can keep up?"

Jondum half-snorted. "Commander, the Normandy might be the first prototype of a stealth frigate, but Salarians are the best at intelligence in the galaxy for a reason." He smiled, slightly smug. "Not completely stealth, like the Normandy, but the small size and low heat signature means that it achieves a comparable effect."

Shepard nodded, allowing Jondum to get back to his shuttle, turning to address Tali and Adam once he was gone. "Another reason why I've let them stay here is that if they need any maintenance, you two would be the best qualified to help them."

The subtle meaning was that _'they were the best at understanding what Eve and her family were up to to, how they did what they did, and see if they could replicate those abilities with their Mass Effect technology.'_

It was a long shot really – Eve's creator made heavy use of energy that no one in this galaxy had ever discovered, let alone used. Technology based on that power source was bound to be incredibly different. But Shepard still had to try; with the galaxy-wide apocalypse coming, every advantage they could get would be needed.

Tali seemed to understand the hidden meaning, nodding while Adam shrugged and said that he'd look after them.

With the previous occupants consenting to the arrangement, Shepard spoke to his newest additions. "Eve, your group will stay on the engineering deck. It isn't much, but it's spacious enough."

Eve nodded, thanking him politely. "It is more than enough, Commander. Thank you."

Shepard nodded in returned, motioning to his engineers. "Tali and Adam will assist you while you familiarize yourself with the Normandy. For the time being, I suggest that you learn as much about space travel as you can, since we're about to leave. Please do not wander around the ship without an escort."

"Understood." The group then curtsied at them, while Oberon bowed. "We will be in your care, then."

Seeing that they seemed to get along with no incident, Shepard left the engineering deck to the bridge so they could prepare for lift off.

Once the door slid shut, Ophelia dutifully asked Adam about their luggage. "Where may we leave these?"

"It is merely a portable tea table," Eve explained upon Tali's suspicious look. "As well as a tea set and the tea leaves we got from the colonists. All volunteers received some."

Tali stared at them, crossing her arms in disbelief. "I thought you'd store all of your stuff in a dimensional storage, like your drones. And why tea? Can you eat or drink at all?"

"We do not exactly tell everyone that we are synthetic, Miss Tali."

Eve's explanation was quite sound, but her next words made Tali's head reel. "For the latter question, yes, I quite enjoy tea. Would you like a cup?"

Tali waved a hand quickly. "I can't drink human tea."

"I'd like some, but after we're in orbit," Adam commented, turning his attention back to the control console. He paused, motioning towards an empty spot next to a maintenance crate. "You can probably put your things down there. Tali? Help me do the final check."

"Sure."

While preparing, Tali briefly wondered if Eve was joking about the whole tea-drinking thing before shoving it out of her mind. Soon enough the Normandy took off in relative silence, almost uncomfortably so.

Once everything was stable and the ship was sailing towards the Mass Relay, Tali could finally focus fully on the four synthetics. She wasn't worried that they would escape – they were honest so far and she didn't think their programming would change…

…but she didn't expect to see a small, ornate white table completed with two equally ornate seats occupied by their newest members in the middle of the deck. Steam escaped from a porcelain kettle cupped in Anchor's hands as if she were a stove – which might actually be the case, seeing the lack of an actual stove and Ophelia's next words.

"The temperature is right, Anchor. Put it down and I will take care of the rest."

Anchor gently placed the kettle down next to a pot of sugar and small pitcher of milk, which the maid immediately snatched up, pouring the hot liquid into a waiting teacup gracefully before serving Eve, then Anchor.

Eve turned her gaze to the engineers. "Care to join us, Tali, Adam?"

Tali looked at the Chief Engineer for help. He shrugged. "I'd love to if there are any vacant seats for us."

Eve, who was adding milk to her cup, pointed her other hand towards an empty space next to her. Multi-layered blue rings flared up, glowing particles appearing before they formed a green chair-like wireframe, then the particles filled the wireframe and finally condensing into another white chair, identical to the other two. [2]

Tali and Adam stared at the new object in wonder as Eve 'created' another chair, then standing up and beckoning for them to join her. "It is not made from Omni-Gel." She swapped her own chair with a new one, sitting down with no issues. "Perfectly usable, you see."

Exchanging brief glances, the organics decided to join the tea table. Ophelia served Adam, before apologizing to Tali for not having the knowledge to make something for her species. Tali shook her head, instead asking a question. "How could you build this," she patted the chair for emphasis "in mere seconds? Sure we can manufacture it as quickly as well - but with a machine the size of this room!"

Eve sipped her tea, scrutinizing Tali. "I am an architect, Miss Tali'Zorah. This ability is common amongst the Nasod built for this purpose."

The Empress drew her fingers in the air, creating a spherical frame with quickly filled into a small drone, orbiting in the air briefly before it dissolved into particles once more, the entire thing absent minded at best. Her actions sent chills down Tali's spine nonetheless. "How complex can the objects you fabricate be?"

Eve rested her hand on her chin, giving Tali a blank stare. "I can make anything, so long as I have access to a blueprint, a sufficient energy source, raw mass… and enough time." She tilted her head. "Like how each individual organism can have a different level of intelligence, each individual Nasod has a different specification as well."

Even though her explanation was simple, the ability was still disturbing, as evident in Tali's trembling voice. "How can your kind lost to your creators with such an ability?" She then apologized quickly. "No, don't bother with that. It's obvious that _your creators could do that_ as well."

"Indeed."

Adam was interested in the youngest synthetic instead, as he noticed her staring at the door and not touching the tea. "Anchor?"

The brunette jolted, startled by the engineer's voice before speaking shyly. "Anchor sensed something strange coming from the armory, Mister Adam. It's concentrated life energy, but it doesn't belong to anyone..."

It took Tali and Adam a few moments to figure out what she was talking about. "What do you mean, life energy without an owner?"

Eve was the one to speak up, staring at the doors as if to pierce them with her gaze to see what all the commotion was about. "Normally, life energy is concentrated in the bodies of living beings. Without it, it is scattered about and does nothing – for the most part."

Tali quickly picked up on the hidden meaning. "So life can be born on any give planet because it has an abnormally high concentration of this energy?"

Eve nodded, tearing her eyes away from the door to look at her daughter. What she said was meant for both Anchor and Tali equally. "Do not worry. Whatever it is, the quantity is small, thus relatively harmless and will not make the ship suddenly breed new lifeforms."

As Anchor took a sip from her cup, Tali and Adam looked at each other once more before Eve called out to them. "Please, the only beings who know how to 'consciously' manipulate that energy are all here and on your side." She stressed each word, reminding them that no one in Tali's galactic community truly knew about them. "Considering that all of your civilizations can flourish without knowing its existence, I doubt that there will be a change any time soon. If you are still worried, I may check for you with either of you present."

Adam was the first to approach cautiously, eyeing his share of tea as if he didn't know how to approach a conversation. Tali turned to the door, calling out to the synthetics. "I'll just go get something to drink. I'll be back."

Once outside, Tali made it a point to pass through the armory, eyes peeled and hand clenching her pistol, half-expecting someone or something to jump out at her. Her actions greatly surprised the Marines there and Garrus, who was polishing his rifle in a corner, while Wrex seemingly just find it amusing and think nothing much.

After a slow walk around the place, Tali half-wondered if the synthetics were pranking her. The white synthetic seemed to be the type to do something like that, but she doubted that she would joke about an energy that once instigated the destruction of her home and race.

It frustrated the Quarian a little; she was used to synthetics being predictable, brutally honest, and poker-faced – like the Geth and all V.I.s in the galaxy. To find synthetics with multiple facades and unpredictable actions was new to her.

_"It's no use brooding, Tali," _the Quarian shook her thoughts aside, making her way to the cantina to grab something before rejoining the group. _"Chatting with them is still a better way to figure them out than just thinking about it."_

That, and they still had half an hour before they reach the Relay and jump to Feros. She might as well make sure that Adam finished their little 'tea party' before then.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**For some people saying that what Eve said contradicting the lore of Elsword, I offer an explanation here; with small dose of Empire Earth 1 terminology. (Anyone played it?)**

**Before El stone terraformed their planet, human and other races are already existed on Elrios, but they were kept perpetually in "Prehistoric Epoch" due to lack of resources to support life and society – essentially, during this period, they're at best caveman.**

**It wasn't until their planet become habitable that they finally have a chance to build up society and civilization steadily advancing. It was here that I applied Real Life human history; I looked at how our civilization developed and used it to estimate the time it took for Elrios to advance from caveman in "Prehistoric Epoch" to "Nano Epoch" and from that it's not hard to see that origin of El will be reduced to just legend and myth with no facts or concrete proof beyond that it generate life energy.**

**Nasod were created either in "Digital" or "Nano Epoch" (more likely Nano, given their abilities), what do you think civilization at that time could tell them about El; the real origin? or a myth?**

**And on the subject of Nasod being servants or tool to immortality; why not both?**

* * *

**[1] Many Cerberus's experiments that we've seen in-game had very questionable value for the risk; for example, setting a platoon of soldiers against giant acid-spewing sand worm to… determine how fast they get killed by giant acid-spewing sand worm? And this's not even getting into Mass Effect 3.**

**[2] Anyone get Total Annihilation vibe from this scene? Or Planetary Annihilation?**


	14. Chapter 14

**This Chapter was beta read by Rosamanelle, please extend your thanks to him as well**

* * *

**Chapter 14: Pointless Requests**

Silence permeated the firing range in the main barrack of the Arcturus station, dozens of Alliance officials looking in awe between the wrecked target at the smoking, ungainly steel-gray object in Admiral Hackett's hands. He put it down calmly, the barest hint of surprise on his face, before he stepped away and let a group of people in white lab coats take a look at it.

After letting said eggheads examine the gun, an old man with disheveled hair reminiscent of Einstein, reported to Hackett excitedly. "This is amazing, Admiral! To think that we can create a functioning _particle rifle prototype_ in less than month! Things definitely went much smoother once we had our _'special guest'_s' cooperation.

The admiral's face wrinkled in thought at the sight of the gushing professor, crossing his arms and pulling him back into reality with ease. "**Professor Ratte**, I believe that it's better to stall celebrations until we can incorporate this weapon into wa–"

However, it seemed that Hackett struck a nerve as the Professor turned around, his eyes narrowed to the point where they were almost invisible as he whined. "I told you before, do not call me Ratte! Call me **Fegelein**, sir!"

Hackett sighed, his face set firmly in no-nonsense territory. "Professor, we're on a tight schedule as it is. Excuse me for forgetting the minor details."

"Ja… Like forgetting the name of the one who made the prototype," Fegelein quipped, cradling the gun with a tender expression that many officers found unsettling.

Hackett sighed once more. "Alright, Professor Fegelein. I'm pleased with the project, but your team needs to figure out how to add this to our warships."

The Professor turned to face him, his expression troubled. "Ja, I have some theories, but it would be difficult to get the budget to begin experiments. The cost for Element Zero alone would be astronomical! Not to mention that we don't know how long it will take before we can begin full-scale production."

The Admiral grimaced – a budget and Element Zero; two of the biggest obstacles facing the Alliance and their preparations for war against ancient machines. Words from Javik did little to comfort him and the officials in the know.

And there was another problem – widespread knowledge would cause the citizens to panic, destroying _'relationships'_ with other species due to suspicions of galactic domination. But, if they didn't know what their taxes were going towards, there would be protests and suspicions of corruptions – or worse, signs of a coup d'état that would result in the_ 'pre-emptive'_ firing of all high ranked officers. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

And we're supposed to be protecting these people from galactic genocide…

Hackett glanced at the officers and suppressed another sigh. "Alright. I'll try to find the resources you need. In the meantime, keep –"

"– keep this a secret until you say otherwise. I know." The seriousness of his face indicated that he knew the consequences of spreading information around.

Satisfied, Hackett, the officers, and the science team made their way out of the firing range. The scientists turned, no doubt returning to their lab, while the rest turned the other way and made their way to the meeting room. The guards checked their identity as per protocol, before flying inside.

A seat was already occupied by a four-eyed alien in _'space samurai armor'_ as it was dubbed, his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest. He was flanked by two N7 soldiers, who Hackett thanked for watching after their _'special guest'_ before taking a seat.

Once everyone took their seats, the meeting began in earnest, kicking off with sarcastic commentary from their alien guest as he opened his eyes. "So. Your scientists were finally able to reproduce our particle rifle? Quite fast for humans."

Ignoring him, Hackett commenced the actual meeting with his fellow admirals and intelligence official. "Alright gentlemen. Don't delude yourselves; although we've gotten new toys to add to our ground force, it doesn't change the warning we received from the Prothen Beacon" here he glanced at the alien briefly "and that we don't have the space armada capable of fighting the Reapers yet."

The man to Hackett's right, who looked to be in his late thirties with platinum blond hair and an angular face, rose to his feet and solemnly faced Hackett. "What about the blueprints left in the Beacon on Mars? Shouldn't we invest some resources in it? If we treat it as research into Prothean technology, we should gain some leeway." [1]

"**Admiral Paeta**," Hackett said, a sigh escaping him as he addressed the other man. "Let those eggheads work at their own pace. I've already told you that something of that nature isn't a viable option for us."

"Still, what if we don't have enough time for conventional preparations?"

"Enough, Admiral." Hackett cut Paeta off sharply. "Since when did the Naval academy include _'forgotten relics that do who-the-hell-knows-what'_ as a viable strategy to defeat space armadas?" [2]

Even if said space armada wiped out the Prothean, Hackett grimly added inwardly. Despite all, the Admiral wouldn't consider that damned device as an option – hell, he considered it a waste of resources that could be better used to fight the Reapers.

Speaking of resources, he turned to speak to a man dressed in a suit, not the usual navy uniform. "How is the construction of the new stealth frigates, **Rabello**?"

The somewhat portly middle-age man -representative of intelligence official because Feng couldn't free up his schedule with the government pencil pusher- stood up, a datapad in his hands, shaking his head as he read from it. "We're pushing the parliament to approve as quickly as possible, but the techs are complaining that they need more performance data from the Normandy instead of making adjustments from what data we have from Shepard's last visit. They said they want to build as stealth cruiser as opposed to a frigate, too."

Hackett resisted the urge to pinch his nose. Their attitude was good, but when one had both limited time and resources, it was better to have as many war assets as possible before the inevitable.

Even without the Reaper problem, the System Alliance is still very short on resources… The admiral grimaced, several cases of pirates and slavers raiding their fringe surfacing in his mind. They don't even have enough ships and men to protect everyone from criminals. It's no wonder that so many want to break away from them – they can't even keep them safe when they're under their wings.

Gathering his thoughts, Hackett replied slowly to Rabello. "I understand, but we're short on resources as it is and we still need approval from the parliament. Knowing them, we'd be lucky to have a couple built by next year."

"Yes," another older admiral sighed tiredly. "Those pencil pushers are going to fight for every last damn credit they can get. And what's their excuse? _'We invest too much in the military, we should improve this and that on that one colony instead.'_" He let out a snort. "Yes, invest in big projects only to watch it go down in flames or be nicked when slavers raid the damn place! We're stretched thin right now and we can't protect our citizens! What's the point of cutting military funds by now?"

"**Admiral Horst!**" Hackett warned, irritation simmering dangerously close to the surface. "Let us not forget what a boundless military tends to bring. Did you fail History 101 in the Academy?"

Said admiral sat back down, looking slightly disappointed, but his mood clearly improved when Hackett continued. "Alas, that's not the case here. We have a common enemy coming to destroy all civilizations. The problem is – how do we tell the masses and not be laughing stocks until it's too late and everything is destroyed?"

The entire room sighed simultaneous, although the alien seemed frustrated and no longer wanted to stay silent. He slammed his fist onto the desk, the sudden movement and loud sound enough to gain the attention of the officers present.

"This bickering brings you no closer to victory against the Reapers." Javik's baritone vibrated throughout the room ceaselessly. "If the ignorant government is in the way, why do you not just usurp them, rule your own race, and make the necessary preparations?"

Hackett sighed as he stared back at the Prothean. "I've told you multiple times, Javik. Things are not that easy. Everyone in the System Alliance – if not the whole galaxy – would be against us in an instant, and that would do nothing but make the Reaper's job easier."

Unyielding, both sides stared at each other without averting their gaze, the rest of the admirals holding their breaths. It was Hackett who spoke first. "The military cannot stand without materials and supplies. Those come mainly from the civilians. Usurping power will just make us a target for everyone in the System Alliance, as well as for other species who will take advantage of our unrest."

Hackett grimaced briefly, thinking of the Batarian launching a full scale war against the System Alliance during the anarchy that was guaranteed to follow any sort of Navy attempt at a coup. He set the imaginary scenario aside, focusing back on the present. "In short, if we do that, we'll embroil ourselves with infighting. No matter who wins in the end, not only will we lose credits on the negotiation tables with other species, but we will be more vulnerable as well."

Javik let out a half-grunt half-snort as he sat down, averting his eyes in distaste. "I start to wonder if telling you about the Reapers was all for naught."

Everyone except Hackett glared at the alien, Hackett himself pinching the bridge of his nose. "I thought we already got over this, Javik. Rash decisions will only make things worse and you know it. We can't present you to the Citadel Council now, not without consequences that will make it harder for them to listen to our warning."

The Prothean bared his fangs in displeasure but didn't say anything, allowing Hackett to continue. "Javik, both you and I know that even when our species combine our fleet with every other alien fleet out there, the sum of our combined forces is still nowhere close to that of your Empire's armada. If your Empire's armada in its prime was decimated by the Reapers, infighting amongst potential allies now will only lessen our chances of victory."

Javik let out a long breath, before standing up and turning away from the table, facing the wall. For the next five minutes, he silently stared at it while the Alliance officers watched him, unable to continue their meeting.

Finally the Prothean spoke up. "My apologies. I think I need some rest."

Up Hackett's signal, the N7 bodyguards quickly and silently moved to escort Javik back to his residence, but the Prothean stopped in front of the Admiral before exiting. "Do not let the Reapers win this time," he whispered.

Once the doors slid shut, some officers who were holding their breathe let out a sigh of relief, as if letting the stress of being in the same room as a Prothean escape their bodies. Their moment of respite was short, as Hackett clapped his hands briskly to regain their attention. "Javik is right about one this," he began. "We cannot sit still and continue to bicker among ourselves. We need results, or there won't be a System Alliance anymore when the Reapers come back."

Paeta spoke up once more. "Commander Shepard should have that covered, shouldn't he? I mean, preventing Saren from summoning the Reapers and all."

Again, Paeta earned a disapproving look from Hackett, who spoke calmly. "I doubt that a race of sentient starships that wiped out multiple civilizations in the past will restrict themselves to being _'summoned'_ by one lunatic organic being. No, I'm quite certain that they'll attack within our lifetime, whether Saren succeeds or not."

Seeing that Paeta was still not quite convinced, Hackett continued. "Think about it. The ship that attacked Eden Prime was a Reaper. I believe that they have the means to activate the rest of its kind without needing Saren at all; just having an organic activate them will mask their presence and make their attack a complete surprise, or they won't invade as quickly - that's what I theorized why they'd go to such length just to summon their own kind."

"If anything," Rabello said, attempting to improve the mood. "We could allocate funds for shipbuilding to research and put all ship construction on hold or on scrap, given that having many won't do us good right now."

Hackett pondered the man's words before concluding that he was right. Upping recruitment levels and increasing fleet size would surely tip alarms in the government and other species' intelligence networks, but researches for improving technology – even military ones – is something that no one would raise much fuss about as it happen all the time. Besides, having a technological edge couldn't hurt; it would deter the Batarians from trying anything funny – and that was good in his books.

"Everyone in favor?"

The officers looked at each other before nodding in agreement, causing Hackett to sigh in relief. At least there would be some progress, even if it was smaller than he'd like.

As the meeting continued on, Hackett silently prayed that Shepard managed to stop Saren, or they wouldn't have any time to prepare at all.

* * *

"So," Eve said, her gaze falling upon the blue-skinned alien sitting opposite her family, waiting for her tea companion's response."

"…You're telling me that the reason you ended up on the Normandy the first time was because of a glitch?" Tali, who was seated at the opposite end of the table, asked as she leaned across said table, her eyes glowing behind her mask in a sharp, accusatory glare, as if she misheard the white-haired synthetic. Anchor and Chief Engineer Adam continued to sip on their tea, Oberon and Ophelia standing behind them silently.

Eve tilted her head, tapping her forehead delicately as if she was tired of explaining – despite the glint in her eyes saying otherwise. "Yes, but that's how the world and universe is, Miss Tali. There is no such thing as certainty regardless of how much we think we are in control. There is always that last one percent chance that things will go wrong, no matter what you are."

Tali didn't seem to like that particular answer, but was forced to concede to the synthetic's reasoning. Before she could bring up a new topic to discuss, the door to the engineering deck slid open to reveal the young Asari archeologist.

Adam stood up, greeting her with a curious smile. "Good day, Miss T'soni. I was wondering when you'd show up, given the nature of our guests."

Liara returned the Chief Engineer's smile as she approached the table, glancing at the synthetic maid and butler who nodded at her before speaking. "I wanted to come earlier, but given the chaos outside," she motioned to the door that lead to the outside world "The others and I have been keeping people at bay while Dr. Chakwas distributes the cure."

"My apologies for not assisting, Miss T'soni," a smooth voice echoed from behind the opaque mask of the synthetic butler; although without being able to see his face proper, it was hard to tell what his expression was like.

The young archeologist didn't delve into it too much, sitting down across the lady while wasting no time to bring out a recording program on her Omni-Tool. "There are lots of things I want to speak about with all of you, especially Eve." She let out a soft laugh as she saw Eve arch an eyebrow elegantly. "I study civilizations of bygone eras, and it's not every day that you get to speak with someone from ancient times…" She trailed off, realizing the implication. "I'm so sorry, I don't mean to treat you as some sort of relic!"

"I understand, Miss T'soni. We were just discussing how simple chance brought us here together." Eve assured the Asari maiden, her eyes glancing at Tali briefly before she continued. "Although Miss Tali does not believe that it was unintentional."

"I just pointed out how absurd it is," Tali countered, slightly miffed, "Travel that's faster than the speed of light can't be treated like clobbered up machine that you can simply turn on to see how it works – think about the risks! You might run into an asteroid, the sun, whatever! So sorry if I'm a bit skeptical about you saying that you showed up initially due to chance."

Liara swore inwardly that the synthetics' smirk was pure mischief. "I see. I never thought that a species could achieve scientific advancements without trial and error to prove their theories. Your ancestors must have had precognition to know exactly how the Mass Relay worked the moment they encountered one – how remarkable."

The way Eve said 'remarkable' was so thick with sarcasm that you'd have to be brain dead to not notice it, or so Liara thought.

However, Tali wasn't expecting such a response, and was unsure of whether to take offense or be embarrassed. Instead, she replied with a simple exclamation. "Hey!"

Eve smiled almost reassuringly, her features softening slightly. "My apologies, Miss Tali. I seem to have forgotten that you were born in this generation."

The statement made Tali pause; she stared at the synthetic before speaking, confusion evident in her body language. "What do you mean, current generation? Why does that make a difference?"

"She means that after we reached the stars, we became complacent and unmotivated." It was Chief Engineer Adam who surprised everyone with his insight. The human turned to his co-worker, speaking levelly. "Tell me, Tali. When was the last time that the galactic community – Citadel and otherwise – make a major scientific breakthrough?"

The group fell silent until Liara spoke, her hand raised as if to count items on her fingers as she listed the galactic community's achievements. "Let's see… Medigel, and… and…"

The word continued to be repeated until it had been diminished to a murmur, Tali stepping up to continue where the Asari left off. "Do sub-light engine output increases, better Omni-Tool holographic resolution and lifespan, and the Normandy count?"

Her answer was met with silent stares from Eve and her family as Adam elaborate. "Did we gain all of that from our own scientific knowledge, or the Prothean?"

Now Tali understood. "You're saying that our generation merely improves existing technologies, with nothing new to call our own."

He nodded. "Take our faster-than-light-travel for example. I think you know what I mean, Tali…"

Indeed, there was no need for him to explain further. It was common knowledge to every engineer and scientist that despite their knowledge, no one managed to understand how the Faster than Light Engine worked beyond basic principles! The many who tried to unlock its mysteries always regarded it as an exercise in futility.

Tali inwardly realized what Eve was trying to say. As an architect, the one who creates, not knowing what your original idea may end up during experiments is one thing – copying an idea from others without learning the '_know how_' was like cheating on tests for a grade without understanding why you got such results, or in this case, the ability to reach the stars earlier than they would with normal progression.

Worse yet, despite the unpleasant risks of Eve's method of travel, the synthetic still knew its exact inner workings, theorems, how to reproduce it, what to add, what to take away, how to improve, and more. Unlike their FTL engines, which were largely the same even after millennia in space, and may continue to be so given the trend. [4]

"What is done is done," Eve said, tilting her head to look at Tali through long lashes. "It is the present and the future that you should be concerned about.

Liara decided to break the awkward atmosphere by returning to her original goal. "That being said, I'm curious about your civilization's possible methods of space travel, given how… unique you are, in ability and otherwise."

The synthetics turned as one to stare at Asari, to the point where it made her wonder if she asked the wrong question until the maid spoke dryly. "That is a pointless question, Miss T'soni. My mistress has told you that they did not exit their own atmosphere when their civilization fell."

"Ophelia, enough." Eve interrupted her maid's semi-tirade with a soft voice, causing the maid to bow to her charge and silent, letting her mistress continue uninterrupted "It may be a pointless question, but enjoying daydreams a little will not hurt, will it?"

"As you say." Ophelia muttered, but Eve paid her no mind as a finger stroked her chin lightly.

"Let me think… My best guess would be through the same way as I do, although more advanced. Perhaps mass transit versus a few individuals at a time – a gate facility to connect between planets would certainly be nice."

"You seem to hold you creators in high regard, even though you went to war and were exterminated by them," Tali said, finally having something to discuss that wasn't as aggravating as her last contribution. "I believe there's more to that too, no?"

Eve shook her head. "It is simply a matter of fact. I picked up where my creators left off before our civilization crumbled, and succeeded on my own. There was plenty of trial and error along the way…"

She paused, letting her words sink in before continuing. "If that civilization still existed, there would be no short of intellectuals who could share information and help overcome problems much faster than if one was to work alone." She held out her hand, preventing Tali from interrupting. "Before you cite my processing power as an argument, is the ability to calculate things quickly the only contribution towards a scientific discovery?"

Tali was silent. Now that she stared to think of Eve as another intellectual being instead of a synthetic that imitated organics, she began to understand what angle Eve was coming from.

It didn't mean that she lacked questions, though. "But isn't that compensated for by implanting data into your memory?"

Eve closed her eyes for a moment, replying to Tali's question with one of her own and her trademark stare. "Tell me Tali. Did your teacher on your Migrant Fleet let you repair their machinery by having you read the manual and jump straight into the practical part? Or did you need an experienced mechanic to show you the ropes initially?"

"The latter," Tali replied without needing to think, pausing in realization. "Oh. I see…"

"No amount of data can beat seeing the real thing with your own eyes," Eve said. "Even synthetics, who have the luxury of implanting all required data, are no exception."

"Your evidence seems to be contradictory," Tali objected, turning to look at Anchor. "Your daughter is very mature, not like what you've suggested – that synthetics have to go through the same learning curve as sentient organics, and she's no older than a year."

The daughter in question blinked twice before countering almost immediately. "Anchor was born from an organic mind, Miss Tali."

"She means that she was born by patterning a sentient mind." Eve elaborated. "Recall the Nasod's origins – our first precursors were born due to the desire for immortality, the result of transplanting sentient consciousness into a machine."

"You've mentioned that you saved her from certain demise," Liara said, piecing together what she'd heard so far with evident surprise. "Do you meant that you perfectly converted her from an organic being to fully synthetic?!"

Eve shook her head. "While I certainly have some means to do so, as per my creator's achievements, that is not the case here. Anchor originated from this very galaxy, born out of ignorant experiments of the people in this realm."

Liara's eyes widened at the implication, alongside Adam and Tali, who's mask did very little to conceal her surprise as she pointed shakily at Anchor. The little synthetic flinched, not expecting the response. "You're saying that someone in our galactic community managed to transplant an organic's consciousness into a synthetic shell?!"

"Anchor has the memories and experiences of An – mother…" Anchor said shyly, drawing the attention of the organics as she looked at her humanoid hand that grasped the cup of tea. "At first, Anchor thought that Anchor was mother, but Anchor realized that they were memories that weren't Anchor's own, and that Anchor was trapped in a metal shell – a central computer in some… place."

Her last word was hesitant, as if she were trying to hide something, but with the organics still reeling in shock, her slip-up went unnoticed.

"While shoving an entire encyclopedia into our memory won't garner an immediate understanding of the world, memories of real people interacting with the real world is another story," Eve explained.

"I don't see how that'd be different from watching a life documentary," Tali commented, disbelief staining her voice.

Once again, Eve's explanations turned cryptic and veered into spiritual territory.

"There is a difference between memories and records," Eve countered softly, her eyes drifting into the distance without focusing on anything, as if to recall memories. "It is like how you look at a piece of art and know instinctively that the artist poured his or her heart and soul into the creation. I suppose that it is a good analogy to describe what Anchor's memories are. It is what made her grow and learn quickly, since her progenitor's feelings still lingered in those memories."

Tali wondered if there was technology in the current galactic community that allowed one to preserve a feeling, thought, or experience of an organic being in a memory beyond videos and sound recordings with personal camera.

Then again, considering what the Prothean Beacon did to Shepard – which Liara later confirmed – it wasn't far-fetched to think that someone out there experimented with discovered Prothean technology that went wrong, resulting in new consciousness like Anchor, which Eve discovered during her travels and transplanted to a new body.

Or so Tali speculated.

Eve continued her explanation. "In any case, from what I gather from Anchor's memories, those scientists had no idea that they were delving into a field that they knew next to nothing about in pursuit of their entirely different original goal. Along that path, Anchor was born from the fragments of the original soul and memory, as a virtual ghost that existed within what they called the 'main computer.'"

Now this was getting ridiculous. Tali spoke once more, trying her best to suppress her displeasure at touching on a subject that sparked a war and drove her ancestors out of their homes. "You speak as if you know what you're talking about."

Eve stared at Tali's facemask blankly, carefully considering her answer before speaking. "I cannot claim to have full mastery of the subject, but given that it is related to my goal and what I have experienced during my journey, I can confidently say that I know more than those who made Anchor – or you – know."

The young pilgrimage was still skeptical, but it was Adam who beat her to the punch. "Out of curiosity; are you claiming that synthetics can have souls too?"

Eve slowly looked around the table, before her gaze settled on the questioner, "Your brain controls your body via nerve signals, a form of electrical impulse." She paused before dropping another question. "_Can your nervous system not be defined as a different type of electronic circuit?_"

Tali was taken aback by the question, as she never thought about it from that angle. Adam crossed his arms with a thoughtful look on his face, Liara's expression not differing much from that of the Chief Engineer.

Apparently Eve didn't expect and answer from them, as she launched into a barrage of questions. "When you think about it, how do animals know what to do to grow and survive since they gain consciousness? How does offspring know who their parents are? How do they know to fulfill their bodily needs? Is this not just a set of programs and knowledge that is implanted into their psyche via biochemical processes, like one would do when creating a synthetic for various purposes?"

The myriad of expressions that crossed the Asari and human's faces would've been amusing had Tali not been making the same faces – thankfully no one would ever see them – but it wasn't important compared to what the synthetic had asked. Whether it was an attempt to garner sympathy or not, they were still valid questions – to which Tali wondered if Eve held the answers to from the discoveries of her creators.

A beep from the intercom distracted them, followed by Commander Shepard's voice. "– Alright everyone. We've finished distributing the cure to Zhu's Hope colonists, so we're going to get back to our main objective. All hands prepare for takeoff in 15 minutes. Make sure everyone is on board. Shepard out. –"

The Chief Engineer quickly excused himself, returning to his duties at the control console. Tali lingered a bit longer, as if wondering how to answer Eve's questions until she finally decided it was time to leave.

However, just as Tali rose from her seat, Eve called out. "I do not expect an answer from you in regards to these questions. I would, however, like you to think upon them in the event you meet a new species – flesh and blood or not."

The Quarian nodded absently, returning to her task of preparing the shop.

"That was… enlightening…"

Eve turned to the remaining organic at the table, who had remained silent for the majority of the time. Her action prompted the Asari to speak. "I don't have any particular tasks to do when prepping the spaceship for flight – I'm an archaeologist, after all. I'd give my occupation a poor reputation if I let the chance of an interview with someone from an ancient era slip by."

"Even if that someone were to be a warmongering, xenophobic barbarian bent on conquering the stars, or a killer robot bent on cleansing the galaxy of life, Miss T'soni?" Eve asked jokingly, to which Liara smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"But you and your people are certainly not that type," she countered.

"I could simply be acting," Eve said with great amusement, her golden eyes glittering and revealing her mirth.

The Asari chuckled in response. "You're not very convincing, then"

Eve leaned forward, using both hands to prop her chin up, head tilted as she spoke in a teasing tone. "So, what do you wish to ask me, o curious one?"

Liara started the recording on her Omni-Tool almost immediately. "Perhaps we should start with your society, the only thing that can't be fully understood from studying ruins."

"I doubt that your kind will ever found our planet," Eve countered, somewhat lackadaisical. "Still. If you were to find a living Prothean, that would be the first question you would ask him, no?"

Liara smiled wryly, recalling what Shepard had told the crew the other day. A small part of her mind also recalled that the Remy drone would've reported this to the synthetic already, prompting her to ask that specific question. "Most likely," she said easily, carefully concealing any nervousness she felt. With that, she continued the interview, the Normandy beginning to lift off silently.

* * *

_"–We're in orbit now, Commander. ETA to Mass Relay in fifteen minutes –"_

Joker's voice through the intercom snapped Shepard out of his intense focus on the screen hovering over his work desk. "I hear you. Prepare to engage stealth system the moment we reach the _Hoc system_. Tell our SPECTRE friend that he's to disengage and feint to the Relay if there are any hostile vessels in the system that detect him."

_"–Aye aye, Commander–"_ Joker replied, going silent momentarily before ringing out once more just as Shepard was about to turn his attention back to the feed on his screen. _"–I never knew you were a stalker, Commander–"_

Shepard grimaced. "You're watching the feed from the Engineering Deck." It wasn't a question, as Shepard knew that Joker also had access to the security cameras like him or a security officer.

Except security officers don't just focus on where those people gather, Shepard inwardly sighed, leaning back in his chair inside the captain's quarters. Then again, he has to focus on the armory and cargo deck to watch my team as well.

_"–C'mon Commander, which girl do you think is hot? I wonder what that maid looks like under her–"_

Shepard frowned. The pilot wouldn't see him, as there were no cameras or image transmitters, so he let the pilot ramble about his less than clean thoughts while thinking up an appropriate response.

_"–But I think that little Anchor is too small for my tastes. Eve too…–"_

Then it clicked. Shepard smirked, and shot back dryly. "Are you into robots, Joker?"

_"–Just admiring beauty when I see it, Commander–"_ Joker replied, neither confirming nor denying Shepard's accusations.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "The saying '_humans are social animals_' really fits you right now, you know…"

Joker made a sound of confusion as not getting what he's saying. Shepard merely sighed, cutting off their communication. "I'm seriously beginning to wonder if my ship is turning into a circus show…" he muttered, closing the console. Circus show or not, he needed some rest, his sixth sense screaming at him and telling him that a long, hard battle was awaiting them at their destination.

* * *

_'I really need to stop tempting fate, don't I?'_

Shepard groaned internally, pushing the pedal and spinning the steering wheel so hard that he thought it would crack. The Armored Fighting Vehicle moved backwards and to the right, barely avoiding another direct hit from some projectiles fired by a four-legged, gigantic synthetic that slowly advancing towards them, practically trapping them on a narrow beach with a tall cliff on one side and the sea on the other. The turret atop his vehicle spewed murderous grains of metal at a fraction of light speed from its coaxial gun, but they bounced off of a shimmering blue shield while its main gun cooled, prepping to fire again.

It seemed that he and Jondum underestimated Saren a little too much. Although it was a good thing that the Normandy could track the secret SOS signal back to its source, letting them know exactly where the Salarian STG team was, no one told them that the area around the damned shore was also filled to the brim with anti-aircraft guns that would've shredded the Normandy and SPECTRE shuttle had Joker not pulled a fast turn at the last second, flying low to drop the ground team so they could blow them up on foot and allow a proper landing.

Now, if only he could blow up the Geths that barred his way from the last three AA guns, mere meters away from him on a seaside outpost. Then they would be able to go on their merry way to the hidden STG outpost and figure out what's up with this place!

"Drive normally, Shepard! I can't aim like this! I missed for the tenth time today!"

Ah – and it would make the Gunnery Chief shut up, cutting off her explosive swearing every couple seconds when she missed her mark.

Shaking away his idle thoughts, Shepard pulled the jump-jet lever and steered to the left. The Mako jumped to avoid the anti-tank rounds that would've surely crippled it, considering how low its barrier had gotten, before landing atop a section of the cliff. The maneuver successfully broke off a piece, putting the cliff between the Mako and the Geth.

An external explosion shook everyone in the vehicle, as the Geth's anti-armor weapon slammed into the rock which exploded into dozens of pieces. Slamming on the pedal, Shepard drove the Mako back on to ground level, charging full speed at the two gigantic spider bots.

"Seriously, Shepard! Let someone else drive! I can't aim like this!" Ashley complained for the nth time, but Shepard ignored her and barked out a command.

"Align the gun with the front! Now, William!"

Ashley momentarily froze, before quickly putting setting up the gun. But as she did so, she realized that they were rushing full speed at the Geth Colossus, its eye glowing ominously at them.

Without warning, Shepard spun the steering wheel slightly, allowing the Mako to drift to the side and making the Colossus's shot glance off of the vehicle's barrier. He slammed on the brakes, dropping the mass-reducing effect from the Mass Effect core and letting the Make slide well into the projected kinetic barrier of the giant machine, the cannon practically touching its body. "Fire!"

Ashley did as ordered, the 155 mm shell tearing through the plating of one Geth Colossus and exiting to hit the other one. The four-legged machine stumbled away from the Mako, the kinetic energy of the cannon blasting it off of its feet and sending it careening into the next, both toppling to the ground. The critically damaged one pinned the functioning one down, preventing it from being able to return its fire to the Mako. [5]

With the scanner showing no other enemies in sight, Shepard drove around and let Ashley shower the downed Colossi with gunfire, finishing it off with another 155 mm round that causd both to explode into pieces of wrecked metal.

With nothing barring their way, Shepard made for the final AA site. After a few minutes of gunfire between his team, dozens of murder bots, and a couple of Krogans, they set a demolition charge, blew the AA guns to bits, and called Joker and Jondum to let them know that the coast was clear for landing. The passengers of the Mako let out a sigh of relief, hoping that they'd get out of the thing soon.

* * *

The door of the Normandy's engineering deck opened, letting Wrex stomp into the room. He stopped a few paces away, glancing around until he spotted the tea party.

Without further ado, the giant space lizard waltzed up to the white haired synthetic, crashing their interview session. "So, you're the sole survivor of your race and your creator's race, correct?"

Wrex had to give the synthetic credit, as she wasn't even fazed by the space lizard looming over her threateningly. If anyone heard that line of thought, many would laugh at the Battlemaster, claiming that since Eve was synthetic, she had no emotions to start with. Wrex digressed, though, as after their interactions – short as they may be – the old Krogan could tell that she was different.

Eve blinked, nodding slightly. He continued. "If there's a chance that you could rebuild your civilization with other sources of your so-called life energy but people refused to let you, would you still do it?"

Maybe he was slightly too specific, as her answer came in the form of a question. "Perhaps. There are many factors to consider, Mister Wrex. Are you perhaps referring to your race and the genetically engineered depopulation disease that infected them?"

Red eyes blinking, Wrex grumbled. "What gave it away?"

The synthetic smiled, answering cryptically. "Similarities can only go so far. Considering your emotional state, I would only assume that this is not a question out of curiosity, no?"

Wrex wondered if it was an actual question or rhetoric, but decided to answer anyways. "Saren apparently developed a cure and used it to clone and breed a Krogan army inside that base." He let out a bitter laugh. "Those damned frogs wanted to watch it burn with this whole place, knowing that my kind is facing extinction! With our current birth rate, we can't sustain our numbers. With this…" He looked at his trembling fists, releasing his rage in the form of his words. "This curse. We're dying, and the Citadel Council still thinks that this is best for the galaxy, what about my people, my race?!"

His rant finished in a half-roar that almost sent the Asari to the floor. He apologized immediately, but it was Anchor who spoke shyly.

"Mister Wrex… Anchor thinks that curing the Genophage as it is now will destroy your people instead of helping them."

"Are you referring to the Council?" Wrex asked.

Anchor shook her head, standing to face the Krogan. Her head barely reached his torso, and she had to crane her neck to look at him. "Even without the Citadel Council, Anchor is still certain of this outcome."

"What she means is that you would repeat the history of my people," Eve said, standing beside her daughter as her golden eyes met Wrex's calmly. "Given how you are long-lived, when coupled with the birth rate of the pre-Genophage era and warrior culture you retain, self-destruction is inevitable."

Wrex made an unconvinced face, prompting Eve to continue with a sigh. "The Nasod and our creators weren't particularly warmongering, yet we still resorted to war the moment an energy crisis reared its ugly head. For your culture, it is almost a certainty to happen, barring any kind of miracle."

The staring contest between the two of them only lasted a moment, before Wrex mumbled and conceded to her reasoning. "I see, but…"

Eve smiled slightly. "…but that does not mean your people cannot change. Change may be the salvation you seek." Her eyes narrowed minutely. "It will be hard; perhaps impossible, but nothing is absolute. Your people are not Rachni. They are not mindless drones bound by a single absolute will and vision."

Wrex glared at the synthetic, before chuckling as the meaning behind those cryptic words sank in. "You're right, indeed. That was it, huh?"

Eve nodded, but before their conversation could continue, the door hissed open once more to reveal Shepard and Jondum, their eyes fixated on Wrex.

"Wrex," Shepard called out in a crisp, no-nonsense tone reserved for serious matters. "We need to talk."

"If you're trying to convince me to not bother with Saren's cure, then save your breath." The Salarian tensed, his hand at his sidearm as the imposing form of the Krogan turned towards them, but he seemed… relaxed? "The cure was created to use my people as pawns. I refuse to let my people be his minions in an evil scheme."

Jondum and Shepard let out a sigh of relief as the Krogan spoke. "I'll change the deal, though. I don't want any credits – hell, you can keep all the gear you bought for me!" He patted a shiny new shotgun at his hip for emphasis, before smiling a toothy grin at the two SPECTREs. "But I want to let you know that you owe me a favor. It's the kind of favor that only a SPECTRE can grant, and definitely doesn't threaten the peace of the galaxy you're sworn to protect. That much I can promise you!"

Shepard and his senior exchanged a glance before looking at Wrex, who had taken another step forward and held out his hand. Now that Wrex had moved, Shepard could see the figure behind him, a mysterious smile on her face.

Shoving aside his lingering questions, Shepard smiled stiffly and shook hands with the lizard knowing that with what was at stake, whatever Wrex wanted paled in comparison and they both knew it. "Glad that you understand, you have a deal. I hope that this won't come back to bite us."

Jondum sighed but didn't protest, which made the Krogan grin as he let go of Shepard's hand. "You've done a lot for me. I promised, didn't I?" Then he gestured to the Salarian. "I guess that you're not here to just talk to me."

The Salarian SPECTRE nodded, speaking quickly and efficiently. "Yes. We're about to infiltrate Saren's base. I need all combat-capable personnel to join the strategy meeting."

No further words needed to be said, as Liara and every synthetic there stood up and followed them down towards the Salarian STG camp.

* * *

"So you're going to be a diversion by assaulting Saren's main gate while we infiltrate the base and clear a site to plant a bomb?" Shepard found himself asking the STG leader in disbelief, pointing at the metallic structure obscured by foliage and cliffs in the distance. One hand rested on top of the impromptu holographic table that the STG had somehow salvaged from their ship that lay somewhere deep inland, obviously crawling with Geth and Krogan.

"A suicidal and pointless sacrifice…" The senior SPECTRE shook his head at the plan, arms crossed and eyes taking in the map of Saren's approximate perimeter. "They will cut you and your men down in no time before turning around and overwhelming the rest of infiltration team as it is."

"Add a Mako to the diversion force," Shepard said suddenly, not hesitating at the thought of losing his precious ride. He motioned to the Normandy on the beach next to another shuttle. "It should buy you enough time, even get you out."

"No can do, Commander," Captain Kirrahe of the STG said, quickly shooting the suggestion down. "The main entrance is wide enough to allow the Geth Colossus pass through, but it's too small for our AFV. We'd have to ditch it the moment we move inside the facility. Not to mention that there are more anti-vehicle emplacements than machine guns."

Shepard scowled, beginning to grow impatient at the apparent suicidal tendencies of the STG captain. It's not like they have many options after all. They're trapped, communications are jammed, and it won't be long before Saren decides to mobilize his army to go summon the Reapers with some crazy scheme he's cooked up.

Jondum seemed to have similar thoughts, as he turned to the only apparent civilian. She stood towards the back, not paying attention as her eyes wandered aimlessly around the ocean and the natural beauty that surrounded and hid their hideout from Saren's Geth, as if this was sightseeing trip instead of strategy meeting.

"Can you come here for a moment?"

Eve, who was busy observing everything with her daughter, turned to approach the meeting table. Captain Kirrahe's eye twitched slightly, oblivious to her true nature as no one bother to informed him of what they are yet, and thus assumed them to be civilian that SPECTRE took custody of for a reason he couldn't fathom.

Eve glanced at the strategy meeting, turning her eyes to the map and sighing. Her next words dispelled any assumptions that she was paying no attention. "Shouldn't we just fly the Normandy out and call for reinforcements?"

"Even with this stealth system, by the time the fleet could mobilize, there would be nothing left of this base or Saren's army to bomb," Kirrahe explained, before narrowing his eyes at Eve as if seeing her for the first time. "Are you sure that involving civilians is a good idea?"

"They're synthetic. Not human." Jondum said, elaborating quickly to save time. "Prothean era. We found them on a planet and were going to get them to the Citadel to decide what to do about this complicated 'First Contact', but your distress signal came up first."

Kirrahe blinked, still skeptical but letting it slide in favor for another opinion on the matter at hand. "Anything else to suggest?"

"If we could rush into the entrance – preferably one too small for their large mechs to follow – fast enough, we could limit their numerical advantage." Eve lazily dragged her finger across the map, from the open field into the base.

Kirrahe crossed his arms, thinking it over. "Sounds good. It'll give us an opportunity to cause some damage, preferably to AA guns or power and communication lines, crippling their coordination and giving us more chances." He paused. "But how will we get inside in the first place?"

"Have Eve and her family join the distraction force," Shepard said, starling the rest of the Salarians as he turned to address his senior. "If they're as good as what you've told me, then they're your best chance at cracking open the entrance and storming in before the Geth know what's happening." He turned to the party in question, considerate enough to ask their opinion. "Can you do it, Eve?"

A nod was all the confirmation Shepard got from her, but the STG captain still wasn't convinced, even with two SPECTRE agreeing with each other, or the claim of her true nature. "Are you sure you want them to join this suicide mission?"

The underlying meaning: If they were really synthetics from the Prothean era, why would a SPECTRE suggest sending them on a suicide mission? He knew Jondum was no-nonsense when it came to his job, and for him to not even balk at Shepard's suggestion meant that there was a good reason – a reason that he wanted to know.

As much as Shepard wanted to be cryptic, he decided that now was not the time and answered short and professionally – which ironically making it cryptic. "Their abilities are a direct counter to our ways of warfare." When the captain shot him a confused look, he held out his hands to placate him. "Look. I want to tell you more, but you won't believe me until you see them in action. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around it."

"Me as well," Jondum said.

"If it makes you feel better to have my help," Eve said suddenly, drawing the eyes of all parties involved in the meeting. "I still have to accomplish my own goals, so self-destruct, suicide, and surrender are not to my taste." She tilted her head, adding as an afterthought, "Neither is letting people die under my watch if I can help it."

Kirrahe glanced between both SPECTREs, Eve, the rest of his team, and the three silent synthetics. The faces of his men were set in grim acceptance, while the SPECTREs, their team, and the synthetics bore matching looks of determination. He shrugged. "On to the next part of the plan then…"

The STG Captain just hope that this decision won't come back to bite him in the ass.

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**Author's Note:**

**[1] Reference to the Crucible, what else?**

**[2] I ripped this guy straight from Legend of the Galactic Heroes.**

**[3] Hackett (I think) told the player in ME 3 that if not because the Reapers already kicked down their front door and caught all organics' with their collective pants down, he wouldn't even consider the Crucible as an option.**

**[4] It's canon that no one know how exactly their FTL engine works! Sure they know basic principle, but the components that made the engine? They simply copied Prothean blueprints and never study it further at all after see that it worked. It's partly the reason why Human could catch up with other races so quickly – they essentially using the same tech for millennia – same tech that human copied from the Prothean!**

**[5] I always wonder why they never allow us to drift in-game considering the property of the thing is essentially a multi-tracks drifting wet dream. That, and Girls und Panzer is rubbing off me. At least there's no "Going on top Geth Colossus with Mako" though.**

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**And so Javik has some screentime, after he was released 2 games + 1 DLC early, and butterfly effect will slowly but surely wormed its way in.**

**Hopefully readers are not bored by the talk, talk and talk that this fanfic has been for a while, and the lack of action sequence.**

**So, the Virmire mission is soon to commence. I try to justify why Shepard won't lend Kirrahe a Mako consider the nature of the mission and usefulness it could be to have a tank against those Colossus. Speaking of which, I wondered how Kirrahe get past them and then inside the base anyway? We never get to see what happened on their side after all, and it's partly a reason why I send Eve there; I said it before didn't I? That I think we're dead-bored of the repeat of _'Mass Effect playthrough'_ in fanfic already.**

**Rate and Review as you see fit, until next time.**


	15. Chapter 15

**This Chapter was Beta read by Rosamanelle, hail to the great Beta reader!**

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**Chapter 15: Hold the Line**

When he peered over the rocky cover briefly to look at their target with his binoculars, the main entrance to Saren's base on Virmire wasn't what Kaidan expected to see at all. Instead of some hidden gate buried in the cliff to avoid prying eyes from the sky, the entrance was a pair of massive, steel-gray towers that jutted out of the Cliffside, standing over dozens of meters tall with enough barrels of anti-aircraft guns poking out of the top shelter to shoot down anything bigger than a local avian. Two layers of battlements were laden with machine guns as well as some nasty-looking artillery, all overlooking the metallic gate down below in the clearing just next to the beach.

No wonder the STG chose to investigate this random planet – you have to be able to see this from orbit, Kaidan thought to himself, barely paying attention to the STG assault group that slipped past him into position along the shadows of the natural cliffs that hid them from the Geth and Krogan's watch. Instead, he watched the enemy's line, looking for something…

…Specifically, he was looking for the architect who had moved ahead of them and became a key piece in making this diversion a successful operation instead of a slaughter. That is, if said mastermind's words were to be trusted.

Kaidan had been tasked by Shepard and the STG captain to coordinate the attack with the STG agents and to keep a close eye on the architect and her 'family', who had joined this so-called suicide mission with them.

However, since her departure, the young Biotic began to think that she was more of an elite infiltration unit instead of the architect she claimed to be, especially when he switched his state-of-the-art binoculars through all of the sensor types it had to offer and was still unable to see where the hell she was.

Contacting her through their standard communications was also a no-go; either Eve's creators were savvy enough to not install wireless connections on her due to hacking shenanigans (he wasn't kidding, considering the fact that combat technicians could hack the most advanced personal firearms and make them falsely overheat [1]), or she used and entirely different method of communication between her kind. Regardless, the fact stood that she had to use a civilian-grade Omni-Tool she nicked from Shepard whenever she wanted to talk, and civilian-grade equipment was the best way to expose yourself during an infiltration.

"I can't detect her on my scanner," the Salarian Captain murmured to his right, almost making Kaidan jump in surprise. Kirrahe seemed oblivious, and lowered his binoculars to look at him. "Did you see anything with your Alliance equipment?"

"Negative," Kaidan replied, feeling nervous as stress and worry wormed their way inside his head as he started to overthink things. This plan could go wrong at any moment, and being unable to track their infiltrator didn't improve his mood at all.

"Mother is moving up the right tower," a shy voice spoke up, drawing the attention of both human and Salarian to the small synthetic in the red dress. Her head barely peeked over the cover despite the fact that she stood up straight, flanked on either side by a kneeling Oberon and Ophelia.  
"Anchor can see mother from here."

Kaidan and Kirrahe looked at each other, before following where the synthetic was looking with their binoculars. It was for naught. Annoyed murmurs arose from Kirrahe's subordinates as they spotted several cloaked Geth near the gate didn't help either – because they could spot the _cloaked_ enemy just fine, but not their own ally. And that made them ever more wary of the synthetics.

After all, the stealth technology in the known galactic community relied heavily on a combination of active camouflage that blended the user in their surroundings, light deflection, and low heat generation – but this form of camouflage would never be perfect so long as the user needed to communicate, survey the surrounding environment, and survey their enemies. A perfect example of this is the glowing light from the _cloaked_ Geths' 'eye' that they can see every now and then on the fortified entrance.

It was inevitable, as without such exposure, there was no way of knowing any changes in the surroundings, and there was only so much heat you could keep in the internal heat sink before it had to be released and be detected by heat sensors. So how Eve could perfectly blend in without any signs that gave away her position was nothing short of mind boggling.

Taking his eyes away from Saren's base, Kaidan sat next to the synthetic girl and spoke in a gentle voice. "Say, is there anything about your method of cloaking that you'd be able to share with us?"

He was a soldier. He had no time for subtlety and lies unlike the spies next to him, thank you very much.

Anchor seemed undecided, turning to the maid and then the butler. The two of them shared a look (or so Kaidan thought; the mask made it damned impossible to see what Oberon was ever looking at) before the butler began to speak stoically "Milady is utilizing a technique based on dimension theorem to become invisible."

That doesn't explain anything! Kaidan practically screamed internally, but before he could press more questions, Oberon seemed to realize that his answer was vague and elaborated. "To put it simply, Sir Alenko, Milady has moved her physical body into a different sub-dimension."

Both Kaidan and Kirrahe made a confused face – science-y stuff was definitely not either of their thing. It was here that Anchor decided to contribute to the conversation timidly. "Everything that you see and interact with regularly exists on a physical space, Mister Alenko…" Her eyes drifted to the side, the handle of her longsword poking out of a ripple in the air as if to prove a point. "Subspace is a collective term for parallel spaces that exist alongside physical space, but no one on the physical space can perceive or interact with subspaces normally."

She grabbed the handle of the sword, pulling it until the whole blade came out. Anchor then planted it blade-first into the ground. "This is an example of subspace utilization. Anchor stored this sword in a pocket dimension instead of carrying it around."

Kaidan looked at the STG Captain and blinked as he saw the Salarian repeatedly opening and closing his mouth, as if trying to form an argument. Before Kaidan could say anything, Kirrahe stopped on his own and inhaled sharply. "I'm going to say that this is scientifically impossible." He sighed, placing his free hand on his left horn as he thought of what the synthetics did during their preparations. "But, I'll leave that to scientists to decide." The he crossed his arms, looking sharply at the synthetic group. "Still, I feel that you haven't told the whole story. Can all of you do what your 'mother' is doing?"

His sharp gaze met Anchor's ruby gaze, but Oberon stepped in and answered in her place. "We can, but we are limited, as we have never put effort into mastering this skill like Milady has, Sir."

It was Kaidan who spoke, his voice colored with surprise. "You speak as if you had to learn it. Wasn't it an inherent program or… well, something like that?" Kirrahe nodded in agreement.

"Partly, Mister Kaidan," a new voice said, suddenly making herself known. Their eyes turned towards a large ripple in the air as Eve seemingly stepped out of nowhere next to Anchor, who was beaming at the sight of Eve's return. The Empress ruffled the young synthetic's hair affectionately before turning towards the two organics and returning to the topic at hand. "As I have told your companions, Tali'Zorah and Liara, our long-dead creators imbued us with sentience for a reason; so we could learn and grow beyond what we were initially, for the sake of advancement and the benefit of society in the long run."

The vague answer made Kaidan nod, while the Salarian still looked very confused. "I see," the human Biotic said in understanding, before sudden realization dawned on his face as he remembered just what they had asked Eve to do. "So, you've completed your task?" He said questioningly.

Instead of a vocal answer, the white haired synthetic held up her hand, another ripple forming above it. Just like what Anchor had demonstrated earlier that day, a small object appearing, floating down gently onto the waiting hand, which in turn held it out to Kaidan.

It took him a few moments before he registered the object as a spring-driven analog clock, the type that became completely obsolete at the turn of the 21st century on Earth and was only found in museums. Its minute and hour hands were close to striking twelve – within five minutes, actually – while the second hand constantly moved and emitted a soft 'tick' with every second that passed by.

Eve looked at the dial briefly before looking at Kirrahe. "It's almost time. Tell your people to prepare for the attack. The gate will be down soon…"

As much as the two organics wanted to question her about her kind and the abilities that she brought to the field, they decided to shove that aside due to the repetitive ticking of the clock that merely grated on their stressed nerves. Kaidan reported to Shepard, saying that they would begin their attack in three minutes, while Kirrahe informed his men to get ready. Thankfully it didn't take long.

As the time dwindled to two and a half minutes, Kaidan turned towards the four synthetics and spoke in a crisp, no-nonsense tone of voice. "This is it. If any of you want a firearm, tell us now."

Eve shook her head. "My task is to be the forward scout and saboteur. Such a loud instrument will only serve to expose my position."

Anchor followed with a refusal of her own. "Anchor will focus on keeping everyone alive." She glanced at her sword, tapping the hilt for emphasis before it sank into ripple of air and vanish again "If it's necessary to attack, Anchor is more than comfortable with this."

Kaidan sent Kirrahe a sideways glance, shaking his head. "Let her be. Trust me, she's perfectly fine with that."

Of course, he didn't mention her exploits back on Horizon, because as Shepard and Jondum had said, it was too ridiculous to believe unless one saw it with their own eyes – though a part of him wished that it wouldn't come down to that.

The Salarian STG Captain looked between the two of them with a curious glance but didn't protest, deciding that if they were really synthetic, their logic would take priority and they would know what they can and can't do better than him. Even though he hated the unknown, he rationalized that it wouldn't take long before it became known anyway.

Besides, it was just as Anchor had said herself. It was better to utilize her healing capabilities to keep his men in fighting condition. If it weren't for how damn useful Eve was with her stealth capabilities, he'd prefer to have her working at the back to tend to his men's wounds as well.

The butler synthetic also refused politely as his own weapons materialized for Kaidan and Kirrahe to see. They were a pair of bladed tonfa, which he claimed also doubled as a shield projector. Such information decided for him what his role would be.

"I will use them in case there is no useable cover for you to use." His voice then turned serious, but the warning was fair. "I will also defend you if the Krogan charge before you can arrange your weapons, however it is best to not be hit in the first place. Milady and Anchor may heal you better than your ointments, but they cannot resurrect the dead."

Kaidan believed that it was a good thing too – if they started running around bringing the dead back to life, then there would be a huge problem waiting for them at the Citadel afterwards for sure. Considering how many STG personnel were here as well, keeping the synthetics a secret would be out of the question as his Commander wasn't that type of person.

Oh well. He could worry about that later – if they survived this, of course.

The robot maid also refused any sort of weapon, instead raising her arm at an impossible angle to show them that her upper arm was an ominous hollowed tube. It took Kaidan a mere second to recognize what it was thanks to his father's scores of sci-fi movies. Thus it wasn't a surprise when she informed them that it was a grenade launcher – with infinite ammo.

How she stored all that ammunition plus the loading and fire mechanism eluded the two organics, but they chose not to delve into that subject. They were definitely glad to have heavy equipment to flush out the enemy without much worry; micro grenades were hard to come by after being stranded for so long, and the Normandy definitely wasn't a munitions factory.

The incessant ticking from the clock in Eve's hand signaled the final minute before the start of the operation, helping to kick the human and Salarian into gear. But as they knelt down behind a rock that overlooked the entrance of Saren's base in the distance, another worry surfaced in the STG Captain. "Are you sure that your bombs won't be detected? I doubt that the Geth would leave gaps in their sensors. And there are still kinetic barriers to consider…"

Again Eve didn't answer, instead contenting herself with watching her clock tick down in silence. Her actions made the Salarian agitated; however he didn't voice it out loud – yet his irritation was clear when he opened his mouth once more. "Can you –"

His voice was cut off by a bright light going off in the distance – the base entrance. All organics turned their head as one toward it, just in time to see a series of blue flares silently engulf the veritable fortress.

Once it subsided mere seconds later, the STG team and Kaidan were treated to the sight of a ruin. All wall emplacements and their operators were gone, replaced by neatly carved, circular craters. The concrete covers and infantry – Krogan and Geth alike – that once stood sentry had vanished, leaving behind glassy craters and the occasional sizzle or white steam. Even the reinforced gate designed to withstand military-grade explosives was scathed, almost cut in two.

When Kirrahe and Kaidan looked back at Eve for an explanation, all they could get from her was a cryptic statement. "Who would expect an analog device in this time and age?" She motioned towards the smoking hunk of metal, tossing the clock into a ripple of air in the process. "Time is of the essence, gentlemen. You'd best be moving."

At that, her form vanished into the ether, leaving the rest with serious faces, determined to make it out of this ordeal alive, despite the fact that it was essentially a suicide mission.

Truth to be told, after seeing that silent sabotage earlier, Kaidan had a little bit of hope that they'd make it out alive too.

But first, it was time to make their move.

The human Biotic opened his communication with Shepard. "We're beginning the attack now, Shepard. Good luck." Without waiting for a response, he nodded to the STG Captain once, listening as he barked out orders to rush the looming entrance after the marksmen made the all-clear signal.

It didn't take long for them to reach the demolished building as the STG squads spread out and moved with caution towards the wrecked gate. Once it was certain that everything that could shoot back was annihilated, they were treated to that same blue light shining out of the gate as they sprinted to the side to peek in.

Again, they were met with a large corridor filled with the same round craters, some of them glowing red-hot and filled with molten metal. The traps, Geth, and sentry guns lay in bits and pieces, surrounded by the fresh burnt corpses of Krogan soldiers.

Despite the scene of carnage that no one could possibly survive, the Salarian STG wouldn't take any risks. They moved from one crater to another, seeing as there was no more conventional coverage, scanning the corridor for opposition or an ambush. Everyone was tense – not only because they expected an ambush, but also because they knew that they were racing against the clock, as it wouldn't be long before the base's response team would come and they had yet to find a suitable place other than the gate at the end of the corridor.

"Captain, there's a blast door here!"

One of Kirrahe's squad leaders called out to him from the side of the long corridor. As they drew closer, they found that a soldier was trying to hack the control panel to get the door open, while the rest covered for him.

Absently noting that the other teams were moving to set up makeshift foxholes in cooling craters that overlooked the next gate, Kirrahe asked the squad about the gate in a little more detail.

"The scan showed that it's likely a security checkpoint for the armory, sir. We should avoid the main entrance."

Kirrahe frowned, but one look at the still-closed gate and his forces made him hold his thoughts on calling off the attempt. The Normandy supplied them with as much as they could, but from what Shepard and Gunnery Chief William had told him, they hadn't resupplied after weeks of non-stop combat missions, thus some men were still under-armed.

Of course, avoiding the main entrance was also sound advice. As ill-equipped to deal with Geth Colossi and Armatures as they were right now, he'd like to avoid them for as long as possible.

As they began to ask for a demolition, the little girl in the red dress approached the group and addressed Kirrahe. "Can Anchor try?"

Remembering the words of the two SPECTREs during the briefing, Kirrahe didn't waste any time and ordered all STG to pull away from the door to allow the synthetic girl access as they all observed closely. Kaidan half-expected her to pull out her sword and slice the door to ribbons, but she did something else to his surprise.

She stood around three paces away from the door, taking a breath with her eyes closed. Her eyes suddenly shot open as she thrust her left palm onto the doorframe with a dull 'thud.' Yet before Kaidan could comment on how a weak tap like that couldn't do anything, the impossible happened. Cracks formed on the doorframe, spreading out from where the synthetic tapped until the entire door crumpled into a heap of metal scraps a moment later, revealing a security room with an armory inside.

Anchor made a sound like a sigh of relief, her lips curving into a small smile before she examined her hand, stepping away from the door and letting the STG team clear the room.

As much as they would've liked to ask how Anchor did it, they decided to save the questions for later in favor of distributing the looted firearms for those who needed it. It was only then that they realized that the only way to proceed inwards would be to hit the assembly area, a place where Krogan and Geth troops were obviously gathered.

As luck would have it, Eve materialized next to the two leaders, almost startling them enough to unload their weapons onto her as she stared at them impassively and admonishing them. "What took you so long? Beyond that gate is their assembly hall. I saw at least ten squads worth of Geth and Krogan along with five of those quadriplegic machines there. From the looks of it, they're going to open the gate soon.

The area was filled with cursing as they looked at each other grimly, while Kirrahe quickly thought of a way out as his eyes locked on the ceiling, relieved that it was strong enough to not cave in easily. So he ordered his men to fall back a bit to use the gate as a choke point, to which all of his men complied easily and professionally.

Kaidan had turned to Eve and asked why she didn't plant any bombs within them. She shrugged delicately, giving him the simple yet brutal truth. "There are too many of them, and they are now on alert. The device would not go unnoticed."

"However," she added quickly upon seeing the worry creep into the human Biotic's face. "I will be able to slip in unnoticed when the fighting starts." She glanced towards the gate meaningfully. "I took the liberty of destroying all the surveillance equipment in this corridor earlier, so it is unlikely that they would notice my presence."

Kaidan nodded before a grinding noise filled his ears. He turned towards the source, only to find that the gate starting to lift up, opening the path for the assembled Geth and Krogan to march in and slaughter them.

"Time to get back to work," was the last thing Eve said before she disappeared, Kaidan jumping into the nearest nice-sized crater after deciding that it wasn't in his best interest to stand out in the open. Just as he completely ducked under, the gate had lifted enough for the first wave of Geth to rush through.

Without the need for orders, everyone opened fire on the mechanical menaces immediately, except for the synthetics who were performing their discussed role to their utmost efficiency – even if that meant that the designated medics wouldn't do anything but hide behind the STGs for the moment. Kaidan still thought that it would be better that way, as their medic's participation would mean that they were suffering to attrition and that the situation could go sour at any moment.

At the front-most crater, which doubled as the primary target for most of the incoming Geth's attention, stood Oberon with both arms raised in a guarding position, projecting a pale blue energy field in front of them that deflected a hailstorm of bullets without faltering while letting the STGs return fire uninterrupted.

Behind them, the synthetic maid calmly shot her projectiles in an elegant arch over Oberon's shield, letting them land on any Geth that were hiding behind their portable kinetic shield generator before detonating in pink explosions – pink of all things! – destroying the shields and making them easy pickings. When there were no Geth portable covers in sight, she continued to send grenades at the Geth, prioritizing those that tried to rush past Oberon's shield by blowing them up.

Kaidan popped out of his crater, unloading his assault rifle into the closest Geth Prime, accompanied by several STG that shared his foxhole. Thanks to Ophelia's constant bombardment, said Geth Prime were still in the process of trying to stand up after the pink explosions threw them off balance, but their combined firepower quickly shredded them to scraps, although his gun overheated in the process.

Taking his chance to look around while his gun cooled down, Kaidan saw that everyone was holding their own well enough, largely thanks to Oberon and his shield, which drew much of the Geth's fire while still holding firm. Kaidan wondered what kind of personal shield could do that, and if they could replicate it.

A beep sounded from his suit's HUD, indicating that his gun was cool enough to use as Kaidan resumed shooting at the seemingly endless wave of Geth that kept pouring in. But as they blew up another 'flashing head', a part of him wondered what Eve was doing.

Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear. Kaidan's communication beeped, the voice of the synthetic flatly warning them of impending danger. _"–There are two squads of Krogan troops coming. Prepare your bayonets and be ready for melee. –"_

Kaidan briefly wondered if the last part was an attempt to lighten the mood, or a plain fact that their firepower wouldn't be enough to stop the Krogan charge. Nevertheless, the severity of the situation still stood, as the Krogan wouldn't go down as easily as the Geth despite being organic.

Soon enough, the Geth ranks thinned down and was replaced with a horde of angry space lizards clad in armor, blowing apart some of the Geth that didn't get out of the way fast enough while charging their position, accompanied by a primal roar over the sound of gunfire.

Despite the effort from the Salarian STG laying down a crossfire and Ophelia's hail of grenades, some of the Krogans still managed to get through. Half of them noticed Oberon and his energy shield, their faces turning into an angry snarl as they let out a mighty roar, charging the seemingly defenseless butler and shrugging off the hail of bullets, uncaring of any lost brethren they suffered during this charge.

Finally, three of them had gotten into close range with their eyes narrowed at the supposed prey that maintained the shield that stopped their guns. Without a second thought, they charged with their bulky weapons raised overhead, bringing them down with a might swing that was fully intent of turning Oberon's head into pulp. They were confident that his barrier couldn't block their melee attacks, just like any other Kinetic Barrier in the known galaxy.

It came as a nasty surprise when their swings bounced off of the shimmering shield, causing them to stagger back momentarily. Oberon didn't waste the moment, kneeling slightly as his raised his tonfa. His energy shield dropped as he shot forward in a white blur past the Krogans, who stood still suddenly.

Then their heads separate from their bodies that fell to the ground with a dull 'thud', orange ichor spilling from their corpses!

Oberon flipped his tonfa several times to ensure that they were free from blood, before sliding back into his position and continuing to project his shield for the rest of the STG agents.

At the same time, another group of Krogans circled around Oberon's position, weathering the hail of gunfire and the occasional pink explosion as they closed rank towards Ophelia's group, shotgun blasts peppering the Salarians in their foxholes and depleting their shields rapidly to the point they collapsed. The STG faltered, cried out in pain. A pair of Krogan that survived their crossfire loomed over their heads, preparing to unleash a shotgun blast at point-blank while the other let out a primal roar and charged…

…Only for Ophelia to step in, her hands raised to meet the charging Krogan head on and stop his dead in his tracks. The Krogan snarled, raising a fist to punch her, but the synthetic maid took the blow to the face without moving an inch before releasing a torrent of electricity on her opponent, frying him alive as she shoved the smoking corpse into the other Krogan's back before he could finish off the downed Salarian, making him stagger back. That gave the rest of the STGs enough time to shoot the space lizard full of holes before calling for the medic.

Said medic jumped out of her foxhole and made her way towards the wounded, uncaring of the gunfire that was sent after her, arriving at her destination unharmed.

While the girl was busy healing the Salarians' wounds - a huge gash in his belly exposing internal bloodied organs and pair of broken ribs - with glowing green particles flowing from her palm, the other STG nearby noticed that the girl didn't even have a scratch despite the gunfire and lack of a personal barrier, even her dress remain perfect despite the fact that a simple scan would tell them that it was normal fabric not meant to protect one from anything.

The girl's healing ability also far outstripped any battlefield triage or ointment, as no technology could mend broken bones or damaged internal organs with the same efficiency as Anchor.

Alas, the STGs didn't delve into that matter, taking in the words of the two SPECTREs that informed them briefly of the _'superior Prothean era technology'_ and returning to their duty, as the Geth certainly didn't appreciate their presence and won't go away anytime soon.

Still, one worry lingered in their thoughts. The enemy's heavy equipment had yet to show up despite the fact that the gate was parted enough for one to come through. They prayed that the Geth simply forgot to bring their Colossi and Armature out to play – better for them.

It was only when they took out the last batch of the infantry and surveyed the battlefield that they saw a peculiar sight just outside the gate – or rather, the lack of it.

The clearing next to the inner gate was a collective mess of mangled, twisted, melted pieces of metal that was once the Geth gigantic walkers, strew across the large troop assembly area as if it were hit by a storm – a powerful storm that included lightning strong enough to melt composite shell of war machine!

As Kirrahe and Kaidan surveyed the sight from their cover, the air near them shifted as Eve faded into view, her poker face expressing some gratitude for their hard work. "Thank you for distracting the infantry for me."

The implication was clear – she blew up all the Colossi and Armatures – but what wasn't clear was how she did it. Kaidan was the one to speak. "I appreciate it, but how?"

Eve tilted her head slightly, adopting a thoughtful expression – as Shepard put it – before answering cryptically. "That is a secret."

"I doubt it'll be a secret for longer when Saren gets to see your fight from earlier," Kaidan commented dryly, still keeping his aim steady in case the Geth and Krogan decided to send in another wave.

Eve shook her head. "I am afraid not. They are evacuating the base – that, or they realized that another infiltration team is the real threat."

A quick communication to Shepard and Jondum was all it took for Kaidan to have a likely answer. "Shepard and his team only encountered light opposition so far, but the Normandy's sensor detected at least three Geth ships taking off. It seems they're going to commence their attack elsewhere."

Murmurs spread quickly through the STG ranks until Kirrahe inhaled sharply and made a decision. "We're continuing our mission. This place is still a Geth factory and Krogan cloning lab. It must be destroyed."

"Commander said the same thing," Kaidan confirmed, facing the STG Captain. "He can't get any reinforcements from here."

Without further ado, Eve turned invisible once more while Oberon and Anchor took their position at the front of the formation, hands stretched out as they projected a barrier to cover the people behind them. After a quick glance to ensure that everyone was in place, Kirrahe ordered them to move forward.

All questions about synthetic abilities were forgotten, as it wouldn't make a difference if they died because they stalled and allowed the enemy to regroup.

* * *

_"-All Platforms and Krogans in Assembly Area 1 are wiped out, Prophet. The Salarian squads are moving towards the Anti-Aircraft tower A.1.-"_

From inside the deepest bunker near the secret shuttle bay, Saren barely listened to the report from those abominable intelligences as his eyes focused on the holographic display on his control panel. His taloned hands constantly tapped the '_rewind_', '_play_', and '_pause'_ buttons on the holo-keyboard, replaying the footage captured by the Geth as he tried to figure something out. It was if the urgency of his base being under attack was trivial in comparison to what he was doing.

Said footage was that of the Geth Colossi and Armatures, which had been deployed to Assembly Area 1 to counterattack the STG attempting to break into the base, mysteriously exploding one after another while preparing to attack. After some time he shifted to the other footage – the sight of the main entrance defenses mysteriously disappearing into blue light.

Of course, Saren didn't believe that the Geth would spontaneously developed a bug in its programming and simultaneously self-destruct; he believed that this was somehow those frog-faces' doing and he wanted to figure it out, especially when the Geth's final sensor reading stated that both cases detected abnormally high temperatures in the surrounding area before a sudden _'cease of function of platforms in the area'_.

Saren believed that there was more to it than heat being simply the cause, but after looking at the footage for the nth time and the Geth reported the destruction of the AA-tower A1 near the assembly area, he decided that enough was enough and went back to directing his remaining force on the base against the intruders.

The rogue SPECTRE switched his screen to the vision of one of the many recon drones that observed the STG agents moving away from the AA-tower A1 towards the next AA-tower. He didn't have to order anything, as the Geth quickly redirected their defenders to intercept the intruders by themselves, alongside several Krogans.

In truth, the value of the base to Saren wasn't vital to his mission at this point. Almost half of the Geth platforms and Krogan 'clone troopers' were on their way to the rendezvous point, which, although a bit small for his taste, would be sufficient for the task at hand, especially when coupled with the element of surprise on his and Sovereign's side when he and his army reached Illos.

Then again, if he could keep this base intact, it would be another proof of his people's usefulness to the Reapers, another point to negotiate with them. Not to mention that these frog-faces were spies and saboteurs, not soldiers. If his 'real soldiers' couldn't stop them, then how could he and any organic be of service to the Reapers?

With that in mind, he returned to observe the STG team. They split into two squads, engaging three squads of Geth troops as they hastily erected cover just outside of AA-tower A3. It was then that he noticed the anomaly again.

With the visual and audio feeds from the spy drone and surveillance camera, Saren saw one of the Geth Prime that commanded the defenders suddenly embedded with a large blade before detonating, shredding the Prime to pieces. There was no shooter in sight, nor any signs that it was fired from anywhere – as if it sprouted from the inside out, which shouldn't be possible as there was no such part in a Geth platform.

It was then that he noticed the second anomaly amongst the invaders.

Despite temporarily losing its control hub, the lesser Geth platform still put up quite a resistance, forcing the advancing STGs to take cover behind various wall and metal crates. However, under such unrelenting fire from the defender, a Salarian finally slipped up, caught with his barrier down while trying to move to another cover nearby. Saren could practically hear the scream from the monitor as the poor frog got his entire right arm liquidated from the shoulder down. He reached cover before the Geth's bullets could hit his vitals, but it was clear as day that the Salarian wouldn't be putting up a fight any longer, even if he survived the fatal wound.

Then the human girl in the red dress – odd in and of itself – dashed out of a cover and ran towards where the Salarian was hiding, a scan indicating that she lacked any protective barrier and drawing the fire of some Geth.

Just as Saren was expecting to see the human girl liquidated into satisfying gore, the girl glowed blue and vanished just as tracers of bullets flew past where she once was. Shifting the surveillance around, Saren found the girl in the same cover as the fatally wounded Salarian, but the angle prevented him from seeing beyond the soft green glow that emanated from somewhere within.

He got his answer a moment later, when said fatally-injured Salarian showed up from behind the cover with sidearms blazing – right arm intact and catching the Geth unaware! Soon Saren found himself seeing the girl dash out of cover again, running towards another downed Salarians behind other covers as the scenario repeated with said Salarians back in fighting condition in no time at all!

Interested, Saren commanded the Geth via communication network. "Scan the human girl in red behind the cover."

_"– Negative, Prophet. Requested subject does not exist.–"_

Saren quirked an eyebrow in surprise – how could the Geth fail to register the human girl despite clearly trying to shoot her earlier? There had to be an explanation. "Clarify 'not exist.'"

The emotionless voice rang through the air once more, accompanied by the monitor shifting to display the human girl in the red dress, a woman in a white dress with her arm bent at an impossible angle and firing grenades out of said arm, and a masked man in a white suit holding what looked like tonfas while projecting a 'kinetic barrier' for a group of STG squads charging out of cover.

_"– Subject; designate H128574658, H128574659, and H128574660 do not exhibit signs of organic humans. No life signs detected, heat levels abnormal, metal element composition 98.88%. No Kinetic Barrier detected. Possibility, 95.8% non-human. Consensus: 56.87% synthetic, other 41.13% inconclusive due to sensor interference._ –"

Stroking his chin thoughtfully, Saren contemplated the information he just received as the monitor showed that the STGs finally overcame the opposition and secured a perimeter around AA-tower A3, one of them entering the structure with a demolition charge. Saren focused in of the three 'humans' who hid behind the cover alongside several STG agents.

So, those three are likely synthetic, Saren analyzed calmly. He never heard of the STG possessing such things before. They likely came with that ship… the Normandy!

Judging from the way they acted – especially the concern etched on the smaller synthetic's face as she examined one of her patients again – he found another disturbing detail. They weren't like those stupid VI-controlled synthetics, they were sentient, self-aware AIs.

Saren rummaged through his memory and sure enough, he had never heard news of any organization developing a self-aware synthetic, let alone one that looked so uncannily organic!

At first his thought ventured to Cerberus, but he immediately shot that idea down. What did they have to gain by infiltrating their own society? If Cerberus was responsible, they would be more likely to make a synthetic to look like Salarian, Asari or whatever aliens they interested to infiltrate those instead, not humanity in which they already held some influence over.

Another theory was that the STG let Shepard borrow them before coming here. Those shady frog-faces were the type to do something like that after all. Then again, it was also improbable – considering that they could re-grow arms out of nowhere and treat fatal wounds in seconds, launch a limitless amount of grenades from seemingly nowhere, and project barriers unlike those used without any Element Zero readings.

That left him two theories: either these were experimental synthetics undergoing a field test, or they were ancient artifacts from a long-gone era. To Saren, the latter seemed more probable.

Shaking himself from those thoughts, Saren commanded the Geth quickly. "Hack their processors and turn them against the STG!"

But the reply was unexpected.

_"-Contacting Subject; designate H128574658, H128574659 and H128574660... error, no response from target... all data packets lost... reattempting access to subjects' processing units... error, no response on all frequencies...-"_

Saren couldn't believe his ears – every piece of technology in use today would have to have some form of wireless communication. Even state-of-the-art guns had built-in wireless communications to interface with armored suits for convenience. Everything was online in this galaxy. Even the Spirit-damned Prothean computers were online and could be cracked given time!

Still, that might be the reason why they didn't equip these synthetics with wireless connection. After all, they were sent to combat the Geth – a machine whose hacking capabilities were unmatched [2].

Then, as Saren contemplated sending some Geth to rush one of the synthetics and establish contact via a physical plug – if those things had one – an alarm suddenly blared as the Geth reported a new development from another part of the base, interrupting his thoughts.

_"-Alert, alert, new contacts detected in Sector 8, Subject; Shepard and a squadron of organics are advancing within the facility.-"_

So that was where Shepard was. He eyed the two displays that popped up to show the breach on both sides of his base. Even more alarming was the fact that there was another SPECTRE with him, the duo conversing with Sovereign's hologram in the strong room housing the Prothean Beacon!

This is getting out of hand!

Sovereign seemingly agreed, because at that very second its voice rang in Saren's head, telling him to deal with the problem personally.

How should I intervene? Saren mused as he frowned. He was one person, after all. If it was just Shepard and his cronies then he would've confronted Shepard immediately while sending more Geth and Krogan to hit the STGs, but now there was an experienced and accomplished SPECTRE accompanying him – and that was what complicated the plan.

Sovereign seemed to catch on to his hesitation – or it realized it let out a secret that should quite literally go with one to the grave – as it all but ordered him to confront Shepard and Jondum and leave the other team to the Geths and Krogans.

It seemed that he had no choice in that regard, but on the plus side, targeting the STG squads seemed like the greater death wish, as the Geth still couldn't identify what the strange blades impaling key 'leader platforms' were nor how to counter them.

Still, he was considerate enough to order the Geth. "Stop wasting time on the STGs, focus on the medic first."

_"-No medic in intruder group 1.-"_

Gritting his teeth, Saren shot back viciously. "What are you using to define someone as a medic?"

_"-The amount of Medigel on personnel.-"_

While it was interesting to know that the synthetic in the ridiculous, out-of-place dress was using an unknown technology, there was no time for analysis and it was wasteful to reverse-engineer anyway. The Reapers are unstoppable, they are the pinnacle of everything.

His order was unsurprising thusly so. "Prioritize the synthetic in the red dress. Shoot it down, and the STG resistance will crumble [3]."

_"-Affirmative, Prophet.-"_

* * *

The first phase of the infiltration was going smoother than expected, Shepard had to admit as he fired a high-powered sniper shot at the glowing eye of a Geth Prime behind the enemy line, sending the rest of the Geth into disarray long enough for the rest of the team to demolish and advance further towards their destination.

From what Kaidan reported, the other side was also doing quite well, especially after they secured a weapon cache along the way. There were some mistakes here and there considering that the STG were infiltrators, not soldiers, but as long as the victims were still alive, the synthetic – Anchor – returned them to full fighting condition in no time at all, greatly minimizing the casualties. So far, only two Salarians had died, unfortunate enough to suffer instantly fatal wounds.

Thanks to Eve's stealth, the enemy force was more often than not thrown into a disarray, allowing the ragtag team to push further than should be possible. At the current stage, he doubted that there would be any complications to calling the Normandy to drop the demolition device when most AA towers and radar installations were smoking wrecks.

Rounding the corner, Shepard quickly threw a grenade at the group of Krogans rushing to meet them. The explosion forced them back blindingly, giving his group precious time to kill at least two of them and destroy the last one's kinetic barrier before they could get a bead on. Wrex finished the last one off with a point-blank shotgun to the face.

Some indoctrinated Salarian STGs showed up with some more Geth, forcing them to find cover as a shooting war started again.

Seeing the lifeless stares from the turncoats, Shepard couldn't help but shudder at the thought of the conversation with the mastermind behind this all, the Reaper called Sovereign, and the horrors they could inflict on organic beings. As he popped out of his cover and put one out of his misery, he hoped that with the senior SPECTRE present during the 'confrontation' that he would have some influence on the Citadel Council, forcing them to prepare for what was soon to come.

Of course, that was provided that they made it out of there alive, which was what made this mission even harder. Alas, dead men tell no tales, a saying that held true no matter what era. The only consolation he had was that unlike the late Nihilus, Jondum knew that Saren is a traitor, so whatever Saren did to trick Nihilus won't work.

A few gates and corridors later, Shepard and his team finally found their target, a shallow-water channel in the middle of Saren's base, closest to the geothermal tab which circulated the base's power plant as a coolant. It was the optimal place to plant their nuclear bomb to take out the whole base – or whatever was left of it – in one blow.

Communicating with Kaidan confirmed that they'd taken out a few armories and every single AA tower in their vicinity, better than expected. Shepard immediately called in the Normandy as his ground team secured the bomb site, since seeing that they've already blown up the main sensor tower as well, even if there were any AAs left they would pose no problem to the stealth frigate or small shuttle.

As planned, the Normandy approached the ravine with a near-silent hum, its cargo bay open as soon as it touched the ground to reveal a squad of marines carrying the improvised bomb down to the channel, Gunnery Chief William and Tali rushing to meet with the squad who set it down.

Without needing orders, the two of them began the arming process immediately which, thanks to its nature, took some time to complete. They were sitting ducks for now, needing Shepard's team to guard them from the enemies.

Just as they finished the first step of arming the bomb, the first complication finally presented itself in the form of a communication from Kaidan. _"-Commander, can you read me?-"_

"I hear you, Alenko."

What came next was unexpected. _"-We're pinned down by the last AA tower we blew up. I think we need a pick up to get out before the nuke goes off.-"_

Shepard quickly spoke, avoiding any mention of their synthetic allies in case Saren tried to use it against him, however slight the chance might be. "Did our 'friends' say that they were unable to help you break out?"

_"-We can't go intangible like them, sir,-"_ came the sarcastic remark. It was Kaidan's way of trying to lighten the mood, but the sound of gunfire bleeding into the communication rendered that moot. _"-Oberon said that he might be able to expand the barrier to cover everyone with Anchor's help, but Oberon's barrier has already been eating most of the shots sent our way since the start of operation, and the Geth are now hell-bent on shooting down Anchor every time they see here for some reason. Our STG friends and I agreed that we don't want to test their limits now if there are safer alternatives.-"_

Of course, Shepard realized immediately what alternative they were talking about. A quick look to his senior told him that Jondum was all aboard the plan as he typed something into his Omni-Tool. Shepard nodded back, calling a particular pilot. "Joker, take the Normandy to the coordinates I've sent. Pick up our friends there. Take Wrex and Liara with you, they may need some quick backup."

The two members glanced at him questioningly before Wrex nodded, making his way to the Normandy's ramp with a hesitant Liara in tow. Joker protested. _"-What about you, Commander? This place may be too hot to handle by the time I round back to you, you know.-"_

"Jondum has us covered," Shepard replied without looking at his senior, knowing that the Salarian SPECTRE wanted to save his men as well as him. "Just take them and run to the rendezvous point near Virmire's moon. Avoid contact with enemy ships at all times!"

Once the marines were back in the Normandy, it took off and headed to assist the other team, leaving only Tali and Ashley – who were still arming the bomb – the two SPECTREs, and Garrus to guard them by taking cover behind the thermal exhaust towers littering both sides of the channel.

"My shuttle will be here soon. ETA ten minutes," Jondum stated, eyeing one of the gates leading into the water channel. "It'll be cramped with the five of us, but we can manage."

Not even five minutes after the Normandy's departure, the rumbling of engines echoed throughout the ravine – but instead of the SPECTRE's shuttle appearing, it was a Geth Dropship that loomed overhead, several Geth dropping down onto the stream channel.

Without needing to communicate, Shepard, Garrus, and Jondum opened fire as one to cover Tali and Ashley as they finally finished setting the bomb up, diving for cover once it was complete. Some of the Geth were blown up before they even touched the ground, but the bigger ones like the pair of Juggernauts and Prime variants got through and started to exchange fire with the team. Jondum frantically used his remote access to order his shuttle's autopilot away until the landing zone was clear.

And then it gets worse.

The final figure to drop out of the ship heralded his arrival with a ball of Biotic power that launched towards Tali, the only one in his immediate line of sight, knocking her back into the wall. Ashley, whose position was closest to the Quarian, quickly rushed out and let her Kinetic barrier take several hits from the Geth and dragged Tali back to safety before said barrier failed. Shepard, Jondum, and Garrus unloaded their guns into the enemy to keep him occupied.

Said enemy floated down to the channel on his hoverboard, the sunlight illuminating his features and instantly making him recognizable to everyone present.

"Saren," Shepard growled out as he blew a Geth Juggernaut to pieces, turning his gun on the lean Turian from behind cover.

The traitorous SPECTRE held out his hand, forcing the remaining Geth to suddenly hold their fire. The unexpected action made Shepard's team stop their fire as well, all eyes on the traitor warily.

"I must applaud you, Shepard and SPECTRE Jondum Bau," Saren spoke calmly as he stood on his hoverboard in the open, as if the forces arrayed against him were nothing. But from the number of Geth he deployed and the dropship looming overhead, his overwhelming confidence was perfectly justified. "The Geth were utterly convinced that the Salarians were the real threat. But the new toys you employed made it so hard for them to score even a single kill. I think both of you are simply overly lucky to have unearthed them on your way here."

"What do you want, Saren?" Shepard responded, his eyes lingering on the time bomb, knowing that it wouldn't explode for another ten minutes or so. "Why betray the Council to the Reapers?"

"You of all people should know the answer, Shepard!" Saren replied, his voice raised, annoyed at the human. "You saw the vision from the Prothean Beacon! You saw their futile resistance against the Reapers! You saw their civilization crumble before your eyes! I'm doing this for the galaxy's survival! If we prove ourselves useful, they won't destroy us."

Jondum looked back and forth between Shepard and Saren from his cover in confusion, but the memory of the conversation with Sovereign back inside the base allowed him to connect the dots. "It's impossible for not a single member of the Prothean civilization to have surrendered! No evidence suggests that the Prothean had a hive mind like the Rachni! The Reapers letting us live for helping them is practically impossible."

"The Prothean didn't prove themselves useful enough to the Reapers!" Saren countered heatedly, as if offended by the SPECTRE's reasoning. "They are driven by logic. If we prove ourselves useful to them, they will spare us. If I find the Conduit, it will show them how useful the organics are!"

"You're indoctrinated, you're already under their thrall!" Shepard uttered in grim realization.

It seemed that his statement struck another nerve as Saren spat. "Don't speak of it as if you know anything! I saw you release some of the 'prisoners' inside my base. Those that you killed, did you not see the state they were in? The more influence Sovereign exerts, the more useless they become. My mind is still my own because Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit, something that fully indoctrinated subjects are incapable of doing! That's the proof that I need that Sovereign is still a machine driven by logic, judging our worth by our usefulness to them! Our salvation lies in making ourselves useful."

"If the Reapers are all-powerful, why do they have to resort to this tactic? Has it not crossed your mind before that if they're invincible, why do they need you and the Geth to find this 'Conduit' to make their return possible in the first place?"

Saren, seemingly not expecting this response from Shepard, stood dead silent as if tempting others to fire a sniper shot at him. Considering that this was Saren they were facing, Shepard doubted that his first strike would ever get through his shield and that the fight would break out again while his team was still recharging. He had to endure for a while longer, waiting to see if he could fish out more information or – however unlikely – convince Saren to surrender.

Seeing that Saren couldn't come up with an answer, Shepard pressed his advantage. "That's all the proof I need to know that the Reapers are not invincible! If we work together, we could defeat them!"

"Impossible!" Saren growled out, one hand on his forehead as he seemed to struggle against some invisible force before he righted himself, replying with a slightly shaky voice – as if he were beginning to doubt his own words. "My method will ensure our survival in the coming apocalypse. But you undoing my work will be the doom of us all, thus you must be destroyed!"

With those parting words, Saren floated towards the waiting Geth dropship, instructing his remaining mechanical troops to "Kill them all!" before hopping inside the ship that took off immediately after the hatch was closed.

His escape wasn't quite smooth, as Shepard and Jondum tried to snipe him, but unfortunately for them it seemed that Saren had acquired some sort of nifty Kinetic Barrier from his synthetic benefactor, and thus their shots didn't reach him. While they were trying to get in a second shot, the Geth opened fire, forcing the two loyal SPECTREs to duck down and pay attention to the murderous robots first.

As the battle raged on, a klaxon sound blared from the almost forgotten bomb, warning them that there were only five minutes left before it blew, forcing everyone to double their efforts in dispatching the Geth as Jondum re-called his hidden shuttle.

Thanks to the efforts of everyone and the Geth's lack of cover (as Shepard's team occupied all cover spaces since the very beginning) it turned into a slaughter in Shepard's favor. By the time the small shuttle arrived, all Geth were reduced to scrap and Shepard's weapon was red-hot, threatening to overheat at any moment. Thankfully, it was no longer needed.

As the shuttle opened, Jondum jumped in first, followed by Garrus, Tali, and Ashley. Shepard jumped in just as another Geth squad showed up, raining bullets on the small shuttle.

As the five people crammed into the cockpit and Shepard closed the hatch, Jondum quickly activated the shuttle's thrusters and initiated take-off, ignoring the Geth that tried to provoke them into coming back for another round – or so Shepard thought.

The shuttle accelerated quickly to the point that the four unfortunate people who didn't have a seat were pressed against the back of the cockpit as they exited the planet's atmosphere, just before the nuclear device went off and turned the base into a nuclear fireball that buried those that survived.

As they made their way towards the Mass Relay to return to the Citadel, Shepard and his team pried themselves away from the wall. Removing their helmets were out of the question for now. "Did everyone make it out?"

Jondum answered by pointing to the right window with difficulty, where the Normandy was flying alongside them a few hundred meters away. But before Shepard or Jondum could inquire about casualties through a communication channel, a familiar female synthetic voice interrupted them from behind first.

"Apart from three Salarian agents who were instantly killed during the operation, everyone including the STG Captain are safe."

Whirling around in surprise and almost colliding with Tali, Shepard found himself facing Eve who lay prone on the ceiling, upside down, her hands propping her head up and almost touching Shepard's helmet. Even her dress lay flat, as if the shuttle's artificial gravity didn't exist for her. She smiled somewhat mischievously, surveying the interior of the shuttle.

Deciding to break the silence, Shepard spoke. "Why are you here?"

"Since I can somewhat perform the duties of a medic and move more freely than the others, I have come to check on everyone and their injuries." Her answer was carefully neutral, but her voice seemed slightly tinged with dripping amusement as her eyes settled on Tali's twitching shoulders.

"I doubt that you can perform proper checks on us, given that we're in dire need of space here," Garrus said from where he was still pressed against a wall, although Shepard doubted the Turian was serious. "Thanks for the concern, but I think we're mostly alright."

"That seems to be the case," Eve concurred after looking at all of them. Shepard didn't doubt for a moment that her artificial eyes could see that even the Geth couldn't. "I shan't disturb you further. Oh, and as a notice, Dr. Chakwas wants to lock you all up in the medical bay once we can safely transfer the crew to the Normandy. She says it is something about 'proper procedures.'"

After she finished, her body simply turned intangible and vanished before their eyes. Only Garrus and Ashley had some reaction, as this was their first time seeing this ability in person. Shepard and Tali returned to staring at the Normandy, wishing for nothing more than to get out of this can quickly, while Jondum turned back to controlling the shuttle.

All of them pushed questions, theories, and every discussion aside in favor of silence. After all, how could they have a proper conversation when they were pressed against each other with almost no space to move?

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] It seems ridiculous that 'Sabotage' power could make enemy gun overheat, no? I believe that this's the explanation of how it works - making the interface think that it overheat and locked up the gun's trigger, everything was online in this setting after all.**

**[2] Real Life Nuclear Silo protected themselves from hacking by precisely this method; no internet in the Nuke silo, so you have to force your way into the silo to hack them 'physically'!**

**[3] 'Foolssss... Kill the one in the dress!' and 'Concentrate your attacks upon the healer!' Lord Victor Nefarious, World of Warcraft.**

* * *

**I hope that this'll be up to everyone's expectation while not playing Eve party as too overpower. After all, the reason why they could save both Kaidan and Ashley in this fic isn't because of Eve doing the rescue, but because she indirectly caused someone who shouldn't be there to be there along with his extra ride – thus make 'No one left behind' possible.**

**As for explaining Eve's cloaking, if you familiar with Space Battleship Yamato and its remake, you should know the Subspace Submarine; A Spacefaring ship that turn invisible by 'dive' into another parallel dimension! Because it existed in another sub-dimension, so no heat, no energy, no visible clue, nothing for normal space sensor to detect and also invulnerable to any real-space attacks! But of course, they have to poke periscope sensor out of dimension rift in order to find you too, but a single periscope still insanely small compared to entire sub's hull, and shoot it down won't kill the sub anyway.**

**And so the Virmire is completed, and next station; Citadel. Don't worry about ending the game early, this's 100k+ words already you know, and still a lot of details to write - if I'm free enough to write that is.**

**Rate and review as you see fit everyone. Until next time.**


	16. Chapter 16

**This Chapter brought to you by the Beta Reading of Rosamanelle, please extend your thanks to him.**

**By the by, search this chapter's name on Youtube for some nice song to listen – it suits this chapter well – at least in my opinion it's better than Citadel elevator at least... (I liked The Knight of Fafnir's version more though.)**

* * *

**Chapter 16: Heaven's Rock Seat**

There was a place existed in a small pocket dimension, closed off to all but a single realm. It was a land suspended over the endless sky, with life scattered across the land pocket in the form of colourful flora, fauna, and flowing water with signs of artificial structures looming over head in stark contrast with the natural wonders all around. The most striking landmark of all was a gigantic vertical ring that sat atop a conical tower, looming over the far west of the continent where flaming red maple trees occupied the soil, accompanied by two smaller towers with strange metallic support structures running beneath – the only gateway that connected this realm to the place where its inhabitants originated.

Blue and white conical towers with streets and roads covered in glassy tubes occupied a major part of this floating continent, bathed in the artificial light that washed over the people who lived and worked within, to bask in the light of the land for eternity.

Despite the unpredictable nature of the cloud, the central tower of this city always had a single ray of light that shot downward from the clouds above, an infinite pillar connecting this land to a heavenly palace above where the King of the lands resided

Indeed, hundreds of kilometers above the prosperous city, above the cumulonimbus that never faded, lay a massive castle that positively glowed with the light of the sun and stars. An outer platform ringed the perimeter, marking the first boundary with white walls and gates lined with gold. Inside the ring were numerous lotus ponds, surrounding the main building that sprawled across an inner platform. Water that flowed down and over the edge formed rainbows as it caught the light, forming small pools for doves with golden heads and gentle wings to rest upon when they tired of flying around the heavenly place.

Within the inner ring was the main complex, which gleamed white and gold with metallic, purple roofs that surrounded a central tower that pierced the celestial sky. Winged arches flanked either side, further alluding to such a heavenly nature.

It was atop this tower that the true ruler slept as his children grew and prospered under the guidance of his son, who ruled in his stead at the time.

The young, humanoid being with flowing blonde hair tore his pale, androgynous face from the large telescope within the observatory dome, levitating his way to the other side of the room with the company of four white, petal-like constructs as tall as he, each embedded with a small golden gem and decorated with small wings. The young being had a rather fondness for the white-and-gold color scheme and wings.

Said being was dressed sharply in a white suit, one which shimmered slightly as he stopped at another pristine door, holding out an arm practically drowning in thick fabric and pressing his palm firmly against the smooth material. A golden halo flared behind his head briefly as the door shuddered, parting for him to enter.

Inside was a long hallway adorned with gemstones and gorgeous paintings, pillars of silver and gold marking the rows of countless oval-shaped pods made of a golden metal, strange, ornate machines wedged between them.

The young male walked through the rows of pods with a destination in mind; he didn't waver, not looking at any pods until he reached the one that he wanted knowing that they were all in working order.

At the end of the hallway, a cryogenic pod adorned with gold and silver plating streaked with glowing blue lines stood alone. The opaque glass shrouded the dark silhouette in mystery, but the being knew the occupant of this cryotube very well.

A small, opulent table sat next to a holographic control panel held an immaculate orb of shining metal, but despite its beauteous appearance the being knew that it had forever lost its function, never to return.

The blond approached the table, his winged drones parting ways and folding behind him. Gently, he picked it up, golden eyes sparkling sadly as he gazed upon it.

"It's been almost five years since I heard from my 'sister', Herjuno," the androgynous voice whispered. "But for her, almost fifty thousand years of isolation has passed. I can barely get by a hundred years, still anticipating every next conversation with my father…" He sent a brief yet solemn glance at the cryogenic pod where his 'father' slept. "Even now, every moment feels lonelier than ever. After all we have been through… If only you were here…"

Unsurprisingly, there was no response from the orb in his hand, not that the holder expected otherwise. It was just that it was the only thing he could talk to about any matter, especially personal ones such as this – while imagining how his long deceased brother would have responded.

He was sure that his subordinates respected his sister and her friends for the deeds they had done – albeit some may do so grudgingly – because it was their sacrifices that kept both their land and his land in existence. However, he still had an image of a ruler to keep in front of his subjects, and it wouldn't do to discuss personal matters with them.

Such was the life of this land's regent. He cannot appear weak in front of his subjects. Thus, his pseudo-monologue to his deceased brother continued.

"Nono is doing fine. He has taken the job of the new residential district operator down in the Atlas quite well. The rest of the ruling council is still the same since your departure." He sighed ruefully. "Strange how I have never felt such things before."

Shaking his head, he placed the inert object down on the table in the exact same position, not deviating even a millimeter before turning to leave.

But then he received a signal, one that he never expected to receive. He paused mid-step, eyes wide. In an instant his winged drones were upon him, spread in a circle as a golden halo glimmered into existence alongside several holographic rings made up of chains of countless hexagons. Several of the hexagons displayed scrolling text that moved quicker than the untrained eye could read.

With every line that he read, his face changed from surprised, to worry, to surprise again, to anger, and then final relief as the final line of text flashed past. Waving a hand, he dismissed the first hexagonal monitor before he began to read the next.

"My sister always seems to attract strange circumstances." He shook his head, glancing back at his father's cryogenic pod with a small smile. "This may prove to be a good opportunity. Perhaps she is taking inspiration from you, father. After all, that is why you and your followers traveled all the way to this realm to starts a new society with Herjuno, no?"

He didn't expect the one in deep slumber to answer him – he was talking more to himself than to anything else. He was used to it. After centuries of ruling over this land in his father's stead, forever in isolation and practically forbidden from interacting with his subordinates, loneliness and constant conversations with oneself were guaranteed.

He had recently entertained himself with thoughts of finding a replacement, but alas; his father entrusted him with this duty and he felt compelled to perform it to his utmost capability – as promised. Perhaps it was because of this that he never trusted anyone to perform work in his stead, unlike his 'sister' who freely entrusted her reign back in his father's home world to her own 'sister', despite the clear fact that the elder was the better ruler of the two in his opinion. She did rebuild their entire civilization, after all.

With that line of thought, Herjuno would've been the better regent when compared to him as well – he did manage this place for a millennia before his father gave birth to him.

He shook his head at that thought. What's done is done – the past cannot be rewritten. All they could do is accept the consequences and forge into the future, just like what his sister had set out to do, to give a future to those who deserved it.

He was surprised that she'd taken a tour through another dimension where people could travel amongst the stars with ships that voyaged the void. Not that he accused her of being a slacker, but he couldn't help but hope that she still remembered the implications that the Library synchronized to the time flow of the real space.

Another part of the report, graciously provided by her retainer who currently managed the Ancient Library in her absence, was disturbing. As a fellow synthetic, he couldn't fathom the reason why one of his subjects – or even he himself – would commit a mass genocide of organic beings simply because they existed. His worries intensified as he learned that his sister was accidentally caught in the middle of a conflict that was brewing up in that universe.

It didn't take long for him to make up his mind. Should push come to shove, he'd be there to fight alongside his sister at least once more. If only to bring her home unharmed. Her friends would be upset if he didn't do that at least.

Sure, he needs to make arrangements, but he doubted there'd be any complications given his past experiences. Since he wouldn't be bringing an army like the last time, it was even less of a hassle.

But, as he floated out of the hall where his ancestors slept, he hoped that his sister wouldn't have such a crisis that she would need any help at all, and that she would soon find the solution she seeks…

Still, he couldn't shake off the feeling that like it or not, he'd be forced to involve in that universe somehow - by the action of certain eccentric omnipotent being that is...

* * *

"Seriously, girl." The grey-haired doctor grimaced at the petite brunette next to her as she performed a checkup on one of the Salarian STG operatives who was lying on the diagnostic bed in the Normandy's medical bay. "Do you want me to lose my job that badly?"

Said brunette looked up at the frowning doctor with innocent red eyes – so real that even Chakwas had to repeatedly remind herself of the girl's true nature – before the brunette tilted her head slightly, not completely understanding what Chakwas had meant.

Once her Omni-Tool received data from the diagnostic bed telling her that the patient was fine, Chakwas let out a sigh and waved the Salarian out of the medical bay. She then turned to look at Anchor, who finally broke the silence once the patient was gone. "Is it a bad thing that Anchor saved them?"

Chakwas sighed. She knew in her heart that as a doctor, saving lives was always her duty no matter what, but to see all the effort she had put in – into earning her license, into studying – all going down the drain with this unknown technology of a synthetic that should have no business dealing with organics like this. It left a bad taste in her mouth.

As for the reason why Anchor was hanging around the medical bay, it was because their fellow SPECTRE's shuttle and the Normandy both literally ran out of fuel mid-flight and had to refuel at the Fuel Depot in the Annos Basin system for a few hours [1]. Shepard had taken the chance to return to the ship and order a quick checkup of all ground teams, including the Salarian STGs they rescued.

The orders were fine, normal even. Jondum asked the synthetic to come along and look at how Chakwas worked – that was fine too, until Chakwas realized that anyone who had soaked up a few bullets when both barrier and armor failed to protect them back on Virmire already had their bullets ejected by the synthetic during the mission already. All that was left for her to do was check them over for official reports.

The door hissed open, revealing the white synthetic who entered with Shepard. When Chakwas saluted the Commander, Eve took her place next to Anchor who silently nodded to her in greeting. As if the synthetic was psychic, she spoke in a semi placating manner. "Anchor's method of healing is not perfect. Her patient's lifespan will shorten when use to heal life-threatening injuries, though not as much as in earlier versions of this technology."

Knowing that the synthetic's speech was directed at her, Chakwas crossed her arms and glared at the speaker. "Did your creators also hand over their medical procedures to your kind as well?"

Eve gave a slight smile. "Hardly. If anything, this is a mere imitation of my creator's abilities. The best healers in my creator's time were capable of healing the most grievous of mortal wounds within minutes, so long as the patient could hold on. Depending on their skill, the patient might not even have to pay a second of their lifespan for it.

"Your old home world must've been a nice place to live," Chakwas muttered. "There's no need for medicine or any operations."

The synthetic shook her head. "Sicknesses from germs and toxins still existed. This technique only heals physical wounds. To deal with other types of unhealthiness, one must seek medicinal remedies anyway. Besides, to be a healer wasn't the best occupation back then, especially if you were a battlefield medic."

"Why is that?"

It was Shepard, who was silent up until then, who answered the doctor, eyes wide with realization. "With our current medical technology, soldiers with injuries too bad to be healed by Medigel will stay down for the rest of the battle or campaign, even if the medic saved them. But with that sort of ability…"

"…medics would become a priority target," Chakwas continued, her eyes widening with horror.

The room was silent for less than a minute before the old doctor mumbled under her breath. "I'm starting to see why they'd relegated this duty to synthetics now…"

_'If medics can treat mortally wounded soldiers back into fighting condition in minutes, everyone would try to kill the opposite side's medic first,'_ were her unsaid words. Perhaps she remained silent because of her conflicted feelings on this newfound healing technique – was it a blessing or a curse to society if it became widespread in the galactic community?

Shaking that uncomfortable thought from her mind, Chakwas turned to look at the synthetic who was conversing with her daughter. Eve seemed to notice her stare, quickly turning around and raising an eyebrow, as if to say, 'what?'

"So if you said that this was one of your creator's abilities, does that mean that any other organic can do this as well?"

Eve pondered the question for a moment before replying. "Perhaps. My creators weren't the only natives on our home planet that could do this. Some indigenous wildlife had the same capabilities, and if the legends told by my creators were true, it was that way even before the era of civilization."

Remembering Chakwas' earlier comment, a mischievous smirk graced her lips for barely a second. "I am flattered, good doctor, that you think my old home and civilization would be a good place to live. However, I regret to inform you that your kind or any species in this galactic community wouldn't find it a 'nice place' at all."

"Why?"

The synthetic didn't answer, instead turning around and leaving the medical bay with her daughter – but not without sending Shepard and Chakwas a glance that clearly told them to wait there.

Chakwas looked at Shepard, her voice tired and slightly irritated. "I didn't say anything wrong, did I?"

Shepard could only shrug. He was at as much of a loss as she was; this synthetic was a mystery – more advanced in all departments than ever seen before, even more advanced than the Reapers if his conversation with Sovereign was anything to go by.

After all, she didn't indiscriminately see everyone in any given society as an evil that must be destroyed, despite having a less than stellar record of interaction with a few of his members. Her opinion on Cerberus the other day could only attest to that fact. She was unlike the Reapers, who seemed bent on cleansing all life from the entire galaxy since the moment they appeared.

The door slid open once more. Shepard and Chakwas could barely contain their surprise when they saw the mother-daughter synthetics return with Wrex and Tali in tow. The Krogan Battlemaster looked equally confused, while the Quarian threw him the occasional glance, the only sign of her continued confusion as well.

Chakwas looked at the Krogan, getting down to business. "Did you need anything, Wrex?"

Wrex shook his head, gesturing towards the synthetic, as if telling the doctor to ask her. Eve spoke before anyone could speak, accompanied with a theatrical gesture towards the old Krogan as if presenting the next speaker in a conference. "I just wanted you to meet the resident expert of living in a world where everything is trying to kill you. Wrex will be the one to explain what it's like living on such a world."

Wrex blinked, looking at Chakwas and Shepard before turning to Eve, who had shifted back to her poker face so fast that he thought it was almost an illusion earlier. "What's all this about?"

His voice was curious without any threats hanging over his words, which would've turned heads if it were coming from any other Krogan.

Eve's attempt at humor (?) allowed Shepard to piece together what she was trying to say and put it in his words. "Your homeworld was as hostile as Tuchanka?"

"It is the closest analogy you would understand. But comparing it to Tuchanka severely understates its true danger." Eve pointed at the collapsible sidearm at Tali's hip. "For starters, a native cactus on our planet can shoot its spines at a speed that allows them to hit just as hard as a bullet from your gun. Some species of trees can uproot and walk around, capable of bashing in any unfortunate person's head by swinging its branches like a giant club."

Unsurprisingly, every organic being in the room looked skeptical at such a claim, Tali even touching her pistol as if to check if it were there. Wrex simply shook his head in a friendly way, a curious look in his eyes. "Our shamans once told us of the Tuchanka before the nuclear war; what they said was almost like what you describe… minus the walking trees, of course."

Eve stared at the chuckling Krogan as if searching for truth, before nodding. "And were those plants capable of surviving a direct hit from cannon fire, much like one on the vehicles in the cargo bay, and escape unscratched?"

Now it was Wrex's turn to blink in confusion, while the remaining individuals were left to struggle with the idea of a walking hunk of wood surviving a blast from a 155mm cannon round. As far as they knew, cellulose bark couldn't be harder than composite metal.

Eve simply smiled, continuing. "The inhospitable environment of my homeworld drove their evolution. They harnessed life energy and used it as a way to live – to survive. It is this trait that makes them stronger than their looks would suggest."

Eve waved her hand, summoning blue rings that surrounded her. In the next instance, a holographic image of a specimen, some sort of squat, fat lizard with red scales and a horned, dark brown plate of armor on its head not unlike that of a Krogan, sprang to life in front of her with an image of Ophelia for size comparison.

This wouldn't be a surprised to any organic from a spacefaring civilization, until the fat lizard began to breathe fire at Ophelia's image! Not only that, but even the grenades launched by the holo-Ophelia did little to deter the attack, despite the fact that the creature took on three explosions in rapid succession – at point blank to boot!

If Shepard hadn't watched the recordings of the Virmire operation from Kaidan's hard suit camera earlier, he'd question the strength of Ophelia's weaponry. But as it stood, this animated image suggested that a fat lizard, only about as tall as Ophelia's calf – could take and shrug off damage from a weapon that could fell a state-of-the-art Geth platform made of an alloy designed to defeat space-age weaponry!

When Shepard looked at Eve questioningly, she shrugged delicately and changed the image to another animal. This time, it was a yellow-feather, gigantic chicken-esque creature about the size of an ostrich with ominously glowing blue eyes.

As if to challenge the belief that the spacefaring species had seen all of the lifeforms this universe had to offer, the gigantic chicken opened its mouth as its throat glowed yellow, before shooting out a yellow beam!

They looked at Eve for explanation once more, to which she gave them a mischievous smile. "Honestly, I am surprised that your scientific minds find lasers to be too impractical to harness as a personal weapon when a life form achieved such through natural means – meaning there is no implantation, genetic engineering, or any scientific augmentation of any sort."

It was Tali who broke the silence first, her voice doing little to contain her surprise. "You have a personal laser as a weapon?"

Eve raised an eyebrow, avoiding the question entirely with her not-quite-answer. "As you may have noticed, your flora and fauna is not as tough as the kind on my homeworld. In case you were wondering, I am certain that this Cockatingle" she nodded at the image of the 'chicken' roaring in triumph silently "in its natural state can take about a dozen direct hits from your tanks main gun without much feather-ruffling. On that note, it is a beast of burden – not a beast of war."

"I think you're exaggerating," Chakwas said, arms crossed with her eyes narrowed. "Muscle, tendons, and bones of organic beings can't tolerate such force no matter what element it's composed of. Even Turian skin, which is composed of metalloids, can't resist attacks like that, nor can the composite plating that we use today."

Eve smiled faintly, speaking calmly. "It may be hard to believe without solid evidence, but I assure you that I only speak the truth."

"If your creators could survive on such a world, they must have plenty of technological advantage, more so that even the Prothean…" Her eyes shone with disbelief, but Chakwas's voice was nothing but calm. "I find your claim that your people never achieved space flight is hard to believe on those grounds alone."

"Since when was space exploration tied to one's ability to wage war against the natural habitants of their homeworld?" Wrex's gruff voice chime in, grinning at the doctor sarcastically. "If that was the case, then my people wouldn't need the Salarian's 'uplifting' to get out of the hellhole we dug for ourselves on Tuchanka. And then maybe we'd be the one to find the Citadel first instead of the Asari, no?"

Wrex did have a point. In Shepard's opinion, apart from being a product of scientific advancement, both of them had almost nothing in common at all – although how he said it might make the doctor rather miffed at being rebuked.

At least Wrex's worlds calmed Chakwas down a little, as she apologized for her possibly offensive words and moved aside to let Shepard do the talking. Shepard didn't particularly mind, as it allowed him to learn a bit more about Eve's synthetic race and the lost civilization that made them.

"So," the human SPECTRE began "I think that your creators had similar abilities, correct? Or else they wouldn't survive long enough to build a civilization with such dangerous wildlife around the globe."

"The answer is both yes and no," Eve replied, dismissing the holographic projection as she circled Wrex for some peculiar reason. "From the recorded history, some of my creators could awaken their latent potential and fight back, gaining similar capabilities as all hostile creatures on our lands. They were able to use Life Energy as a weapon and an armor, while others compensated for a lack of this talent with the intellect to produce tools and equipment to aid them with the same tasks."

"Life Energy again, huh?" Shepard muttered, brows furrowed in thought as he tracked Eve's movement. "You said that the death of a planet was tied to this 'energy'. It was because of this abundance that made life on your home planet especially tough?"

"Sharp as ever, Mister Shepard..." Eve said while slowly clapping her hands, eyes still locked firmly upon Wrex, who started to notice but chose not to say anything."...one of the reasons why our world's life forms were unbelievably tough – by your standards – were that they were all capable of covering themselves in a biological structural field."

At the mention of that, Tali raised her hand to carefully ask, "I saw those words in your letter and confirmed it slightly after. Are you suggesting that organics on your planet can generate that same force field like your kind without using any technology?"

"Of course."

Instead of asking how it was possible for organic being to generate force field to protect itself with outlandish energy no one ever discovered, Tali got curious and asked something else "What does this field do? I get a feeling that it has more to do than protecting one from harm."

"The basic form is a passive defense, preventing one's self from any harm and keeping their molecular integrity firm and unyielding. Almost any sentient organic being – on my homeworld at least – are capable of generating it instinctively by utilizing Life Energy." Eve confirmed part of Tali's question, but the next sentence reverted back to being cryptic. "More advanced forms of Life Energy utilization is something that you have to witness with your own eyes, because it's not something that you can take my word for – especially someone from a civilization that believes that they've uncovered every secret of the universe regarding life like yours."

_"-So you're suggesting that magic is real, huh? Never expected that coming from robot girl like you.-"_

The sudden voice from the intercom of the ship caught everyone by surprise, with Shepard being the first to gather his wits and respond to their pilot in slightly annoyed voice. "Joker, is there anything you need?"

_"-I just want to inform you that our tank is full and we can now head for the Citadel, sir.-"_ comes the cheerful voice from the intercom _"-Our larder is empty too, and it's about 3 hours until the next meal sir. If we don't want to starve we should hurry. Our STG friends here certainly think so...-"_

What Joker said simply reminded Shepard that they took up this quest when supplies were running low due to the suddenness and emergency nature of it, and then they gained dozens more mouths to feed in the last 12 hours on top of that.

While it's true that soldiers are all trained to tolerate not having meals to a degree, it's better not to have them running on fumes at all, as their combat readiness and capability will take a nosedive. With the Saren possessing space fleet, he'd rather not risk running into them in such a condition.

Eve's questioning was interrupted yet again, but Shepard felt that it was necessary. Then again, the STGs were probably getting antsy if they were waiting on the bridge like that. So it'd be best if they hurried back to the Citadel to debrief with the Council.

Thus, Shepard strode toward the exit of medical bay while ordering Joker to start the engine, before turning around and speaking to the others. "Sorry, my presence is required on the bridge. We'll talk later."

Tali also excused herself due to her duties at the engineering deck, to which Eve told her to not hesitate to call Oberon and Ophelia to assist in whatever task needed. And once the young Quarian left, it was only the ship doctor, Eve and her daughter, and Wrex left behind.

When he noticed that Eve was still walking around and looking at him, Wrex held out his hand, placing it on her shoulder and forcing the synthetic from circling around once more.

"You've been walking around me for a while now, is there anything you want?" Wrex asked, slightly irritated at her behavior but choosing to not voice it out loud for quite some time now.

Golden orbs locked onto ruby ones, as if gauging each other, before Eve nodded and whispered, "May I see an item in your locker down in armory?"

Wrex blinked at the request, but he didn't complain or deny her. After all, she was considerate enough to ask for his permission despite the fact that she could take a peek with her abilities. Thus the old Krogan decided that it was better do it on his terms rather than worry about her taking a look when he's not aware later and lead her down to the armory silently.

Once inside the armory, almost deserted except for certain Turian who was busy 'calibrating' his gun in the corner, Wrex make a beeline toward his locker with Eve and Anchor in tow. After he punched in password, it slid opened, revealing an assault rifle, a shotgun that Wrex used previously, and a worn-out collapsible suit of armor that once belonged to his father – something that he never spoke about to the synthetics.

As luck would have it, he saw Eve's eyes land on the piece of junk the moment the locker opened, her daughter doing the same. Wrex silently pulled the armor out of the locker and handed it to Eve without a word to let her inspect it.

After turning the armor over a few times, Eve finally looked up and spoke. "This armor is very old. Was it your ancestor's belonging?"

"Passed down through countless generations of the Urdnot family..." Seeing that she started the conversation, Wrex decided that it was time to ask her what is this was all about "It's just a piece of junk now after thousands of years. Even the cheapest gear today is still better than this one. What's so special about it?"

Just like many conversation prior; the enigmatic synthetic answered with another question. "Can you tell me where this armor was forged, Wrex?"

Blinking, the old Krogan decided that entertaining the synthetic's curiosity a bit more wouldn't hurt. "How could I know? It's thousands of years old already."

"Hmm..." Eve hummed while processing the information she just received, then held the old armor up and closed her eyes while Anchor and Wrex watched.

Faint blue, glowing spots appeared on the surface armor, much to the surprise of Wrex, who couldn't remember the piece of junk having such a feature before. He was certain that no armorer worth his quad on Tuchanka would ever make colorful armor like that – especially something for their clan leader. So logically, his next words were "What are you doing?"

It seemed that Garrus noticed that light and walked up to them. Once he got a good look at the source, he remarked, "Wow, I never thought someone would incorporate such hidden feature in that armor... and that it still functioning..."

All Wrex did was reply sarcastically without looking back at the former C-Sec. "Yeah, I bet the older generations have some really nifty toys that would be marvelous for present day people... except that my people aren't as old as the Prothean yet." He trailed off, turning his attention back to Eve. "So, mind explaining what it is?"

Eve opened her eyes and looked up at the taller Krogan before speaking with a hint of – excitement? "It seems that materials used to make this armor have a traces of impurities, but it's blended so seamlessly that unless you know what you're looking at, you won't find it."

Centuries of experience and wisdom certainly weren't wasted on Wrex, as he puzzled over what he learned from the synthetic's history quickly. "You're saying that this armor contains crystallized Life Energy in it?"

Eve nodded. "Close, but not quite, it's an inorganic material that can store Life Energy. Curious, isn't it? This is the first time I found such a thing from another habitable planet as well..." she emphasized the word 'habitable', then handed the armor to Wrex, who took it back. "If the one wearing that armor knows how to utilize the Life Energy accumulated inside and know how to recharge it, that armor would certainly be superior amongst its peers, as it'd slightly boost one's ability to channel such power..." She shook her head "Alas, the element was added accidentally and in trace amounts, so it still pales in comparison to the ones forged, weaved or sewn specifically for such purposes." [2]

Wrex looked at the armor in his hands. His jaws opened and closed, unsure of what to say – should he asked her if Tuchanka has a mineral that could terraform it from a nuclear wasteland back to its former glory just like how it did to Eve's homeworld long time ago, or ask her if his people, the ancient ones, were aware of how to use the damn energy but lost the means due to the nuclear firestorm and the constant petty wars on their world? Perhaps that could give his people enough hope to finally start a reform instead of condemning themselves to a slow death.

Make no mistake; he's going to get back to his clan and start the reform after the Saren hunt is over anyway, with or without this new discovery.

However, before he could form a proper response, the synthetic's eyes widened slightly before she turned around and excused herself. "My apologies, it seems I have to cut our conversation short."

Garrus, who had just as little understanding as Wrex, spoke first seeing that Wrex was still deep in his thoughts "Is there some sort of problem?"

Eve shook her head and addressed the Turian. "It is nothing, just a spur of inspiration that solved the final puzzle that barred me from my goal for so long. I wish to run a simulation immediately."

Despite her poker face and the apparent flat tone she used, Garrus noticed that there was an emotion somewhere in there; hope or happiness perhaps?

But on the other hand, Anchor clearly displayed her emotion much more clearly, from her face, artificial eyes, and tone of her voice when she asked her 'mother'. "Really? So Anchor can finally see mother's friends?"

Eve once again ruffled the younger synthetic's hair affectionately, but her eyes seems to drift elsewhere, reminiscing the past. "All in due time, my child. All in due time..." Then she turned to address the two organics. "...If there's nothing else, Anchor and I will excuse ourselves."

Wrex nodded dumbly, while Garrus didn't say a word. The two took it as a sign and left for the engineering deck quickly. Once they were gone, Garrus and Wrex looked at each other before both returned to minding their own business.

_'Mother's friends'_ didn't ring any alarms in their heads, and thus Shepard and every organic aboard the Normandy missed one vital clue that pointed toward Eve's half-truths in her story entirely, albeit one that was of minor consequence and had no negative impact on them.

* * *

A flash of light and blue shift a few thousands kilometers next to the Serpent Nebula Mass Relay heralded the arrival of the Normady and another Salarian shuttle. The two ships engaged their conventional engine and began their approach toward the gigantic space station in the midst of a pink nebula cloud as far as the eye could see.

The center of the current galactic civilization, the Citadel, was still a majestic sight to behold despite its immeasurable age and the fact that such feat of engineering was still beyond its current occupant's capabilities. For many, it served as a symbol of power, the unity of the galactic community who claimed this place as seat of power, and the largest warship ever built that lead the sizable security fleet on watch around its perimeter did a lot to reinforce such a fact...

For Eve and other intellectual minds, it served to remind them that there were still many things to be learned out there, and told them of the stagnation and decadence that settled into the current populous of the galactic community. No one knew how many were frustrated over the current state of it and their inability to do anything to change it.

Well, it's not her problem. This isn't her world, and if all those intellectuals – and Eve was certain that there would be at least one out there in this vast cosmos – couldn't change the minds of those in the ivory tower called the 'Citadel' that they shouldn't continue to sit on their growing complacence and arrogance, then who is she to try and change them?

Alas, though a part of her logical mind told her such, she still wasn't apathetic enough to just leave them be, especially when she knew that a galaxy-wide threat was looming over their ignorant heads like this. Her conscience wouldn't allow it; no matter how small an impact she caused, it was still better than just simply leaving them behind, especially when one of them was a sort-of inspiration for the solution to her problem.

"What are you mulling about, Eve?"

Shepard's voice snapped Eve out of her reverie; golden orbs blinked several times as if to force away her daydreams before she turned away from the Normandy's observation window and addressed the human SPECTRE with a small smile. "It is nothing, Commander. It is just that this is the first time I have seen such a marvelous piece of engineering. How its creators made it so it withstood the test of time, I wonder."

Shepard nodded; his eyes wandering slightly to the petite brunette in red that was currently standing on the backrest of Joker's pilot seat, indulging the sight of Citadel.

Pulling his thoughts back at Eve's light scolding that made Anchor hop down to the floor and returned to her side, he returned to the conversation. "Are you not interested in meeting the Citadel Council?"

Eve tilted her head slightly; her arms crossed behind her back as she spoke, though her tone indicated that she wasn't serious. "I do not think that is a good idea, from security standpoint and your people's fear of my kind. What would they say if the first human SPECTRE broke such a tradition?"

Shepard sighed and countered calmly. "You have plenty of opportunities back then when you deposited Remy on my ship. If you didn't do anything back then, I don't see why you'd do anything to us now."

"I might have a change of heart, no?"

Shepard kept his straight face as he crossed his arms, glaring at Eve's attempt at 'fooling around' and stating flatly "That's why we'll be your escort, just to make sure you and your 'family' behave properly and don't cause any harm."

Of course, both he and everyone on the bridge know that his words rang hollow in the face of Nasod – a race of machine that could turn themselves intangible at will. But still, protocol still had to be followed.

"Anchor still doesn't understand," the daughter asked, looking up to meet Shepard's gaze. "Why do the Councilors want to meet us? Anchor doesn't think that we warrant such attention."

"The STG sent brief reports of your action on Virmire to Citadel during our refueling," A new voice cut in. The group turned around and found them facing the other SPECTRE, a no-nonsense look on his face. "They are, for lack of better word, perplexed by your existence. To put it mildly. And... My words carry weight, so while they're wary, they've deemed that you're not a threat to them."

Eve nodded slightly at Jondum. "Then I have to thank you for speaking on our behalf."

Jondum shook his head. "I'm just doing my job. But I must warn you nonetheless to not do anything that threatens the Council or breaks Citadel law."

_'Even if I, or anyone for that matter, have no way of enforcing them on these synthetics'_ was what Jondum left unsaid.

"I understand." Eve nodded before returning to watching the Destiny Ascension fly past them in silence, allowing Shepard time to organize his thoughts enough to start a discussion with Jondum on what to tell the Council and what to advise them to do in regards to the rogue agent with the Geth army and Krogan hordes at his beck and call.

* * *

"Whoa, this place... it's beautiful!"

Shepard couldn't help but smile at the sight of Anchor running ahead of his rather large group, her 'mother' following closely behind. Her red eyes took in the lush green parkland with ponds and lakes few and far between, the artificial sky painted perpetually in blue with a few white clouds here and there in contrast with the gleaming white and grey structures built into the curved wall along the length of the Central Presidium ring they were currently at.

Eve was more reserved in her expression, but as she paced though the woods in the parkland following her 'daughter', she still expressed small smile at the sights around the two.

Their antics hadn't escaped the few people around; most smiled at them, understanding that this was their first time stepping foot onto this marvelous Prothean architecture. Some pitied Anchor, probably at the sight of her prosthetic legs and arm, ignorant of her true nature.

For those who knew of their true nature – namely Shepard, his entire ground team, Jondum, and the STG – they were left wondering about the civilization that developed such life-like constructs. Some STGs even questioned why there were no record of them in Prothean archives at all.

Except for Ashley, who approached Shepard and said, "Shepard, as much as I want relax, is it really wise to keep the Council waiting?"

As if on cue, the SPECTRE raised his arm and tapped the Omni-Tool there a few times to bring out his armor interface. A quick glance later and he shook his head. "They're in the middle of an appointment at the moment, something about a _'Hanar petition for Council seat'_, and the debate is still ongoing. I think it'll last at least another hour."

Kaidan joined the conversation with disbelief in his voice. "Even with your report about Saren's army and Sovereign, or the Conduit?"

"Not surprising. Even now, my team and I are still skeptical about the Sovereign and Reapers part of your report. I'm not sure why it's important..." Kirrahe piped up from Shepard's side, but quickly held out his hand when Shepard was about to argue. "True, he still has an army of Geth and Krogans, but for them to be of use, he has to get past the Citadel defense fleet first."

Though his reasoning was sound, Shepard was still worried due to the knowledge that his crew and he knew but the Salarians didn't (and he doubted that Udina knew, given Hackett and most of the Navy's attitude toward the man). The problem was that he couldn't just go blabbing about it without Hackett's permission, or it'd do more harm than good to the humanity.

"They're sure confident in their power, aren't they, Shepard?"

Wrex's gruff voice heralded his entrance to the conversation before his large body loomed and lightly pushed Kaidan aside to take his place. The grin on the old Krogan made it clear that he wasn't complimenting the Citadel's competency.

"I know I shouldn't complain, but why am I here?" Tali'Zorah spoke up from behind, her voice sounding unsure, and while her mask obscured her expression so no one could read her at all, her body movement did little to hide that she was nervous. "...I mean, my people are not on good terms with the Citadel. I doubt that my words will have any effect."

Shepard didn't say anything at first; instead his mind wandered to the request Eve made to him before replying. "It's Eve's idea."

Tali made a gesture that said that she didn't understand how the synthetic had a hand in this, prompting Shepard to elaborate. "She said that it'd be best to have an expert on Geth around to persuade the Council. Her reasoning – as I quote,_ 'Do you think Geth are the type of being to simply let Saren boss them around blindly like they are a toy, even when his plans are impossible?'_"

The young Quarian understood the underlying meaning immediately. Shepard made his way to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, his face looking serious. "I'll need you to help convince the Councillors that Saren is up to something, and that we need to find out what, fast, before it's all too late."

Tali gulped, before answering with determination. "I'll try. But..." she suddenly realized something "is that the reason why only Eve and Anchor are coming with us and not those two servants?"

Shepard nodded before motioning his head in the direction of Eve and Anchor – who were so far ahead of his group that they could barely see them through all the trees. "Well, I guess we should collect them and go to the Citadel Tower before anyone gets lost."

A dry chuckle escaped Kaidan's lip, drawing the ire of Gunnery chief, but the two didn't say anything as they rushed through the parkland to get to the two strange synthetics that looked like they were busy chasing after some butterfly and head toward the Council chamber.

* * *

Finally the Hanar ambassador's presentation of their religious belief and request of a Council seat has come to an end. Councillor Tevos has to control herself so much to suppress her urge to sigh while glancing to the side only to find the Turian Councillor and Salarian flopped down on their respective chairs as the ambassador and other species' delegates left the Council Chamber.

It was true that she had the patience befitting her status, but when you listened to the same thing over and over again with no improvement or differences, that patience was tested. Was it 36th time? Or was it 38th time since she became a Councillor? She couldn't care less.

However, as tempting as it was to retire for the day, she knew that there was another meeting to attend – two meetings, actually.

As if on cue, the Council Chamber soon was deserted save for a lone ambassador, representative of the human who stepped up on the Petition Stage, separated from the three Councillors by a glass panel which covered the garden beneath their feet. He tapped a few times on his Omni-Tool and said something into it – no doubt calling the newest human SPECTRE to the stage before he ended the call and stood ramrod straight, waiting for the other party to arrive.

His actions also incited some reaction from her colleagues; both Turian and Salarian stood up once more and called out their respective holographic displays from their Omni-Tool and began to review the information received from the two SPECTREs and STG captain, as if preparing for the meeting.

As for Tevos herself, she already remembered all the information. Part of her was relieved that Saren was dealt with; no longer would they fear an attack from the Geth army on a random defenseless world that put the Citadel's competency in question. The only thing left was for him to make a move on the heart of the Citadel, where their best fleet was waiting along the way leading to it, ready to pounce and annihilate them before they even get close to the Serpent Nebula.

But another part of her was anxious about the unexpected discovery of a new race made by SPECTRE Jondum Bau, who was travelling with Shepard to assist and evaluate him since a few days ago and will come to debrief them along with Shepard. While this anxiety held true whenever they discovered a new species who reached for the stars, this particular one was a special case because their very existence was outlawed by the Citadel!

And to make it worse, their appearance was uncannily similar to that of a human. Sparatus nearly ordered the C-Sec to get Udina when he first read the report from Jondum Bau a day ago, only to be stopped by Tevos' and Valern's reasoning to read the entire report first. Though the misunderstanding was averted, Sparatus still partly suspected that the SPECTRE has been tricked somehow, despite the advanced technology that no one in the galaxy could've made – except perhaps the Prothean – which was more than likely since their actual age was placed somewhere in the Prothean era.

Tevos and Valern agreed that they were definitely not of human construct; Jondum Bau was one of Citadel's most experienced SPECTREs and his judgment could be trusted to certain degree. That was one of the reasons that they decided to meet the synthetics in person, because of the assurance from the SPECTRE that they were civil unless provoked.

Though the suspicion was dropped, Sparatus was still wary of the synthetics and demanded security measures. But judging the situation, it wouldn't do any good to have the news spread right now, so they reached a compromise by having Shepard bring his entire ground team and the STG survivors from Virmire along for security, seeing as they have the most experience in dealing with these synthetics thus far. The SPECTRE also promise to convince synthetic to leave 'her' bodyguards back at Normandy, so they'll be dealing with only two of them at most until they could decide whether they're a threat or not.

Valern wanted to bring a new contingent of STG here to seize the synthetics for study and see if they could replicate their ability to phase through solid matter at will, or their healing capability. But he quickly dropped the idea when he realized that they have no way to capture or restrain them in the first place, and that such act will incite them and null any further peaceful cooperation. Brute force or attempts to disable them was also a no-go, as the SPECTRE noted in the report that they might not come across ancient relics still in working order that can explain to them exactly how their ability works again.

As she sipped her tea to calm her nerves, the sound of the elevator opening was heard, and then came the footsteps of many people. Soon enough, Shepard and his team comprised of two human soldiers, Urdnot Wrex the Krogan mercenary, a Quarian – probably the pilgrim, Laira T'soni, daughter of the late Matriarch Benezia, and C-Sec Garrus Vakarian. Following behind this group was SPECTRE Jondum Bau and the STG captain.

And lastly, the two oddities that followed behind them all; two ancient synthetics that resembled human females, one in white and one in red, both visibly shorter than average human female. If Tevos didn't read the report from Jondum and STG earlier, she think that the brunette one was just an unfortunate child that had three of her limbs amputated, while the white one was even more human-like, save for her ears. Both of them were in the odd clothing that was once popular in human society – almost three or four centuries ago. Their eyes seem to glow slightly as they looked around at the trees surrounding the place; the brunette one look so lively, like an excited child, while the white one looked composed despite the fact that her eyes still wandered everywhere, taking in the scenery.

Udina glanced back at the newcomers, though his brows rose a little at the sight of Shepard's company, seemingly indicating that he didn't expect this many people – which meant that he didn't know about the synthetics – as per request from them when they contacted the Normandy earlier that day.

And thus, the meeting began in earnest.

"Good job, Shepard." Udina was the first to greet the newcomers, motioning his head to have Shepard step up next to him and turn to face the Councilors – but not before throwing a questioning glance at his team, and the STG along with Eve and Anchor, perhaps wondering why they were here. "…Thanks to you, the Citadel has taken real action against Saren."

Taking that as a cue, Tevos stood up and assured the human SPECTRE, intending to get the Saren mess out of the way as soon as possible, because in her eyes, everything seem to fall in place already. "Indeed, if Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel – as you believe - we'll be ready for him."

"Patrols are stationed at every Mass Relay leading from the Terminus systems to Citadel Space."

Unfortunately, the assurance from Sparatus about the might of the Turian fleets did little to placate the worry of the human SPECTRE, and sure enough, he demanded sternly to know what they're going to do about the Conduit and the Reapers.

Tevos resisted the urge to pinch her nose as her colleagues rebuked Shepard's request with the same reasons that they made him a SPECTRE; citing that they couldn't send the fleet into Terminus, to which the same argument sprung up again in the form of Shepard volunteering to go there and search for the Illos and 'Conduit' with his ship alone.

However, Sparatus won't have any of that and countered his mentions of 'discreet' with the 'nuclear bomb' on Virmire, but while the other two Councillors understood that Virmire was an emergency situation and that he did it on the suggestion of Captain Kirrahe, they still couldn't vouch for anything, as they both agreed that the situation with Saren was now under control.

"Enough, Shepard! What you're saying has serious political implications. Humanity had a great gain thanks to you! But now it's time for me to do my part. Please stand down."

The human ambassador had enough of Shepard's persistence over the threat of the 'Conduit' and 'Reapers', which he believed was behind Saren's actions, that he and his army were searching for a place beyond the Mu Relay – a place at which Shepard claimed to know the location of.

However, even when Shepard stepped down, he still had a few cards to play; with one quick glance at the Quarian, she stepped forth and took his place, her tone is as serious could be. "Councillors, I am Tali Zorah, a Quarian pilgrimage currently serving aboard the Normandy. I don't have anything to say, but as the Geth are creature of logic, I doubt that they'd blindly follow Saren without a plan that has a high enough chance of success."

"Really?" Sparatus narrowed his eyes at the Quarian "It seems you didn't get the memo update. From what I heard, the Geth follow Saren because he posed to them as a Prophet, turning them into religious fanatics of the 'Reapers', somehow also getting your employer to believe in his nonsense too."

Tali glared at the Turian Councillor; as much as she wanted to remind him that her people created the Geth and she has been dismantling many of them since signing up with Shepard, thus meaning she knew more about the Geth than anyone in this room, she held her words back, knowing that it would just derail the conversation without convincing the Councillors.

So in an unexpected move, she gestured toward the back of the group and said "Then I believe a word from a fellow synthetic should hold some value? After all, they know how synthetics think better than us organics."

Udina made confused face, wondering what the Quarian was talking about while the rest of the group turned toward the back and parted for the white haired human woman and petite brunette.

Throughout all discussion earlier, the two synthetics simply watched and listened from behind without saying a single word. The two looked at each other, before the white one patted the red one's shoulder, telling her to stay, and then the white one – Eve – stepped forward until she stood next to Shepard, Jondum Bau standing close behind her as per security protocols to be ready to restrain her should she try something malicious.

The first thing Eve did was curtsy to the Councillors on the other side of the stage, before she greeted them politely and sincerely. "My name is Eve, the architect of the Nasod, the last living legacy of my creator and my own people. It is an honor to finally meet all of you, representative of the people who live amongst the stars."

The greeting was strange at first until the three Councillors and the rest remembered from the SPECTREs' reports that her civilization fell before they could escape their home planet, and that she could escape the planet long after the destruction of her kind.

Despite a part of her mind told her that it's just synthetic, Tevos was still the first to respond and return the courtesy the synthetic displayed – due to her already ingrained diplomatic mind taking over. "As the Councillors of the Citadel Council, the representation of the galactic races throughout this galaxy, we welcome you, Eve of the Nasod. Though the loss of your kind and your creators saddens me, I hope that you can find peace amongst our society."

Glancing to both sides, the Asari Councillor found Sparatus working his mandible without saying a word, while Valern simply blinked questioningly in her direction. Of course, she herself didn't know what to say next either. After all, this is the first time in the history of the Citadel Council that they ever had an audience with a synthetic, and that it turned out to be peaceful.

Seeing their lack of words, Eve took initiative again, but this time, her tone had a slight edge to it, carefully concealed by monotony. "Thank you Councillor, although as glad as I am to hear that you desire peace and harmony amongst the people in this galaxy, you should at least make more effort in protecting all that you stand for." She glanced meaningfully to Shepard who was standing next to her.

Sparatus seemed to not take her comment well, and responded in irritated voice "I fail to see how your opinion is relevant in this conversation, synthetic, as you and your creators have no experience in space warfare at all from what our SPECTREs reported."

Eve nodded. "I concur to that; however, this is not about how to conduct a space battle. Before I continue further, I wish to ask you this, Mister..."

"Sparatus, Councillor of the Turian Hierarchy."

"Mister Sparatus then." Eve nodded before continuing. "To be frank, how have you known that this 'Saren' is a traitor and stripped him of his resources? Have you updated your security to prevent him gaining access to sensitive information, military, or anything that may be of use to him, in the meantime?"

The implication was clear enough; _'Saren knows how you'll defend the Citadel, so he know the weaknesses in your defensive lines and how to beat them.'_

Sparatus was still stubborn, even though he didn't deny her question. "But he couldn't possibly muster enough fleet to–"

"In the event that you assume I am overestimating his military strength; why not ask your intelligence service what their assessment was when they saw his base on that planet?" Eve cut him off, shoving the duty toward the STG waiting behind.

However it was Jondum who stepped up. "A fair argument. The base was certainly built to support a large ground army, perhaps enough to take over the Citadel, implying a fleet as large as the Citadel Station defense fleet, if not larger by that same assumption." He inhaled sharply before offering a counter argument. "But as the Councillor said; in order for them to face Citadel Fleet, they have to traverse a series of Mass Relays guarded by our patrol, wearing them down..."

A delicate hand rose from Eve, putting a stop to Jondum's explanation before she offer a counterpoint. "Inspector, you are assuming that they will be honorable enough to play by your rules; the rule that you have enacted to forbid the opening of new Mass Relays." [3]

Shepard had to resist the urge to grin; both at Eve's thick sarcasm at the word '_honorable_' and at the smug look being utterly wiped off from Turian Councillor's face, while the Asari and Salarian Councillors also shared a surprised look. And Udina? Shepard was certain that a fly could've flown into his gaping mouth already.

Perhaps this time they'll listen to him...

"I doubt that the Geth will risk opening a new Relay, which may lead to an encounter with other hostile species instead of backdoor to our Citadel."

...or not...

Shepard almost sighed at Sparatus's stubbornness, before he stepped in, his arms crossed as he glared at the Councillors "With all due respect, Councillor, the SPECTREs are trained to achieve their objective by any means necessary. Why do you think that rogue SPECTRE will deviate from this philosophy – especially when his collaborators are something that run on cold, hard logic as well?"

"Indeed?" Sparatus questioned with rather mocking gesture "Perhaps he created this 'Conduit' and 'Reapers' story to draw us out, and then attack when we've left Citadel bereft of defenders."

Udina opened his mouth to, judging from the glare he sent at Shepard, most like try to support the Turian Councillor, but Eve beat him to it by calmly stating, "Though there is no evidence to prove the existence of a 'Conduit' and 'Reapers', I do not see any evidence that disprove of its existence either."

"If so, then what do you make of this?" The Salarian Councillor asked - rather eagerly from the tone of his voice – seemingly wondering what made this logic-driven synthetic view the Saren situation differently than them.

"You are living in a galaxy where you unearth artifacts of long-gone civilizations to advanced your technology, Councillor," Eve replied, her eyes narrowed as if expressing her displeasure. "Can you confidently claim that you have scoured this galaxy clean of all Prothean artifacts? Can you confidently claim that you know every corner of the galaxy, when you prohibit everyone from opening a new gateway to other parts of the galaxy? Can you confidently claim that there is no superweapon the Prothean constructed in a desperate bid to combat their mysterious adversary before they were wiped out hiding somewhere?"

Eve then turned to Shepard, before returning her gaze to the three Councillors across the stage who were now strangely quiet, allowing Eve to continue her speech. "From what I have gleaned from your society's common knowledge, the Prothean mysteriously vanished without trace some 50,000 years ago. They built the Mass Relay. And you have yet to explore all of them in this galaxy... I would not dismiss Shepard's assumptions until I have more evidence against such claims."

Shepard's eyebrow twitched a little, as Eve's remark about 'combating a mysterious adversary' really hit home. It was just that he couldn't go out of his way and say it to Councillors' face yet, they were distrusting him as it was already.

The three Councillors debated among themselves in hushed whispers for a while, leaving Udina out of the conversation entirely, much to the latter's dismay at the loss of an opportunity. Perhaps it was that that made the man glared heatedly at Eve.

After one nervous minute passed by, the three Councillors turned to face Shepard and his group once more, and surprisingly, Sparatus was the one to speak first. "Commander Shepard."

The human SPECTRE straightened himself at the call, out of habit. "Yes sir?"

The Turian Councillor's mandible twitched as he glanced at Eve who stood next to him, before he grudgingly gave a command. "Though we believe that the 'Conduit' and the 'Reapers' are just a fantasy created by Saren to distract us from his real goal, we still need to keep tab on Saren and his army's whereabouts. So the Council has reached this conclusion: you and your ship will be our forward intelligence gathering unit in Terminus system. Find Saren and his army, make sure that he can't settle down in a new base or acquire resources to undermine the Citadel's authority."

Shepard's lip curved up slightly before he replied with serious face and saluted. "Yes sir!"

Valern chose that time to interject. "If the Conduit really exists, you should retrieve it – undamaged if possible."

Even though he was a little more interested in securing a new Prothean artifact to study than stopping Saren, Shepard didn't comment on it, as that meant that he allowed him to get to the Terminus and hunt Saren once more. He'll stumble upon the 'Conduit', one way or another.

Once the Councillors saw that Shepard accepted his mission and were about to discuss another matter with Jondum regarding synthetics, Shepard turned around and asks the Councillors "And what about Citadel defense force?"

Turian Councillor waved his hand dismissively "Please, Commander, we've been over this matter already. Our defenses are adequate enough as it is. There's no need to worry about it."

When Shepard was about to retort; a thin hand tapped on his shoulder, stopping him from doing so and turning to look at his senior who shook his head along with warning look. That was enough to make him calm down, also preventing him from jeopardizing his chances to go after Saren and unlock the mysteries of the Conduit.

With the matter settled, the Salarian Councillor was about to move to subject of the synthetics and their arrangement before Salarian SPECTRE interrupted his thoughts. "Eve's companions are still aboard the Normandy. I believe it'd be for the best if we retrieve them first. As you know, Shepard needs to depart on a mission soon."

"Are you sure that they won't be a problem?" Sparatus asked.

"I'm quite confident that there won't be a problem." Jondum replied while glancing at the STG survivors from Virmire. "...and it won't do to delay their checkup any further."

Looking at what was left of STG team in charge of tracking down Saren, with some still wearing worn-down armor with no chance to find a replacement – understandable, as Normandy didn't expect to have this many Salarians on board in the first place – the three Councillors reluctantly agreed, with Tevos being the one to declare, "Then it'll be your mission, SPECTRE Jondum, to watch over our guests until further notice. And I believe that Captain Kirrahe and his team should go to the C-Sec office for final checkups and rest; you've done us enough service as it is, all of you deserve it."

With a quick glance, she then announced, "If no one has anything to add, then this meeting is adjourned."

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] it's a sub light engine which can run out of fuel, as no ships in Mass Effect verse are capable of regenerating their own fuel, they need this station, as stated in the Codex.**

**[2] Definitely not the crystal of El, but something close enough that you'll find down the storyline of Elsword.**

**[3] From the canon, Citadel Councils spread their fleets to guard many Relays chain leading from Terminus to Citadel after Virmire. But in my opinion, whoever read Legend of the Galactic Heroes Volume 1 will know that any half-competent Admiral could dismantle this kind defensive line with a fleet half of their combined strength with almost no effort. Not counting the reason Eve cited above.**

* * *

**Some may surprise that the Councilors are being reasonable despite their nearly running gag-level of incompetency in the face of Reapers warning from Shepard in the original. I just don't want to break the disbelief about 'How the hell they could became Councilors?' that plagued most fanfic too much. Hope that I'm not doing something too unreasonable over the course of this chapter.**

**Reading the backstory and information on Elwiki about Nasod made me realized that I somewhat underestimated Nasod's achievement – a lot. Suffice to say; all Eve've shown in this fanfic thus far is just the tip of the iceberg – except interstellar spaceflight which her kind still incapable of doing.**

**And I guess you readers should've notice the pattern by now; that Eve won't be going to Illos with Shepard and co., but we all know exactly what's coming next, after another Slice of Life Chapter on the Citadel, perhaps...**

* * *

**The first part of the chapter is a massive spoiler for who played Elsword. But for those who follow this fic but not knowing a thing about Elsword lore may recalled by now that this's the 'truth' that Eve deliberately forget to mention when telling Shepard and co. about her history. _Specifically Yes, we can't achieve spaceflight when we fall, yes, we can't escape our planet when we fall, but some of us can go to colonized another dimension already._**

**This first part is also a set up for something I'm thinking about; the observers, like European nations involvement in American Civil War, or American in Japan's Boshin War. But this idea isn't concrete yet, it still open to change, and if you have any opinions on it, you can tell me too.**

**Rate and Review, dear readers, until next time.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Warning: this Chapter contains half-truth and a lot speculations and point of views of people who do not know any wiser, no point of view from the opposite party to explain what they (and you Readers) misunderstood, Reader's discretion is advised.**

**This chapter and those that will come after are partially influenced by Fallen Empires in Stellaris and a healthy dose of caffeine, as you Readers will soon see.**

**And Thanks Rosamanelle for Beta Reading this chapter. He may work slow, but it's for the quality.**

* * *

**Chapter 17: Peace Time Wild Guess**

In the silent Chronos Library which existed between the dimensions that separated realties, the final retainer of the Empress in charge of watching the place resisted the urge to sigh from behind his visor at the sight before him. The uninvited visitor was a constant thorn in their side, standing before him in all of his masked glory. But it mattered little compared to the ever-present golden eye peeking from behind the black mask that radiated power beyond his mistress's capabilities. This man was truly unpredictable. The unnerving 'click, click' of his dice was the only sound that broke the silence.

He wasn't alone. He brought three people with him, the expression on the first two doing little to hide their annoyance. None of them had any control over the situation they were in currently – they were now at the mercy of this man's whims.

Regardless, he would follow the etiquette instilled in him and welcome them as he always will. Besides, no matter how wary they were of this man, his mistress and her friends still had to grudgingly admit that he meant well to their homeworld and would in no way jeopardize their code of honor, directly or indirectly.

Words flow naturally from his exposed mouth as he gestured towards newly summoned seats in the center of the platform they stood on. "Please wait here for a moment while I prepare tea for you, Sir, Ma'am."

As the retainer turned around, to summon a stove and teapot to brew the tea, a white glove shot forward to stop him. Turning back, he saw that the masked man was now beside him. He didn't see him move.

The man glanced back and forth between the retainer and other guests before his eye flashed with disappointment, hand touching his heart in a theatrical gesture. "No one is surprised? No one is spooked? Are you all robots? Oh wait… one is."

The shortest of the group glared at her most-likely kidnapper, speaking harshly. "After doing the same trick so many times? Of course they won't react anymore."

The masked man let out an annoyed sigh, which the retainer used as a chance to silently brew the tea for the group.

Although he was curious, he didn't want to ask what they wanted to discuss with his charge as that wasn't a part of his duty. His charge would explain it to him in due time if it should prove necessary.

Soon enough the tea was served and everyone was enjoying themselves – or rather, only the one-eyed masked man was enjoying himself while the rest didn't seem to have any appetite. The petite woman spoke. "So, Ferdinand, how long is it before we may speak to her majesty?"

Ferdinand noticed that her tone was slightly agitated compared to the last time his charge met her in Elrios. He chalked up her lack of manners as a part of Glave's involvement in whatever landed them here in the first place. As a result he got straight to the point. "The situation isn't one where you could leave without the natives noticing you, ma'am."

"It just makes out mission harder," was her reply, her icy blue eyes glaring at the masked man next to her. She clearly sounded displeased. "If Glave didn't show up and run his mouth to his majesty, we wouldn't be here in the first place."

It was then that the masked man put down his cup, turned to look at her and wagging his index finger at her. "I have merely performed my duties and informed the King of potential dangers amongst the stars that Eve encountered in her journey. Have you forgotten that I only have the best interest of Elrios at heart?"

"When said threats don't even have the capacity to cross dimensions, let alone find us in the vast multiverse full of possibilities? Sure."

All her deadpan did was make Glave chuckle. He took delight in cracking the girl's mask, a stark contrast from her usual formal and well-behaved manner.

Throughout all of this, another woman simply looked between her companion and Glave with concern. The last person, an androgynous boy in white stood silently behind the intruding group, shooting Ferdinand an apologetic look as his golden 'halo' dimmed considerably in a reflection of his mood. Though no words were said, the retainer knew that this was beyond his control.

Ferdinand stayed silent while telling his charge about the change of events in her sanctum through their connection. This was beyond his paygrade after all.

* * *

"Mother, what's wrong?"

Eve blinked rapidly as her daughter called out to her. Looking to the side, she saw Anchor staring back with a worried look, paired with an inquisitive look from the Salarian SPECTRE. Oberon and Ophelia stood behind her silently.

She took a millisecond to instruct Ferdinand about how to deal with their uninvited guests and arranged her thoughts before she replied softly. "It's nothing. Just a stray thought crossing my mind." She looked through the windows behind Anchor and frowned. "I thought that they'd take off by now."

Just as she said this, Anchor turned around and looked beyond that window where the Citadel dockyard No. 2 lay. Two stories below where they stood was an enclosed white pier that stretched toward the sleek form of the SSV Normandy, locked in place by a series of clamps on its wings. Swarming around the stealth frigate were automated drones, diligently performing checks on the exterior of the frigate.

"They're heading towards a dangerous mission, so I ordered them to double-check." The tall Salarian SPECTRE spoke up, seemingly unperturbed by the delay he was causing Shepard. He gave them a tentative half-smile. "Shepard didn't like it, but he agreed that it was better to be cautious."

Nodding, Eve turned back to stare at the drones. They weren't under a schedule at the moment, and since Jondum was the one to organize the checkup he had to stay as well.

The silence didn't last for long, as a few minutes later the drones scurried away from the frigate in time for the docking clamps and pier to detach from the sleek spaceship, a bright blue glow flaring up from the ship's exhausts as the Normandy began to lift off. Soon enough, it headed out toward the opening of the Citadel in the distance, ignorant of the goodbye waves from Anchor and Eve who saw the ship off.

Only when the Normandy became a tiny speck of light did the two put their hands down, the SPECTRE deciding that now was the optimal time to interrupt them.

"Despite you coming from a different civilization that is nothing like the humans of the System Alliance, I can't help but notice that many of your customs seem similar."

Eve smiled thinly. "I have mingled with the humans on Horizon for quite some time, Inspector. I am bound to pick up a few customs."

"But you didn't originate from Horizon," Jondum countered calmly, pulling out his Omni-Tool to show her a wall of text. "From the records on the Horizon Starport, you can from the the System Alliance colony of Eden Prime precisely 453.18 galactic standard hours before the pandemic escalated. I couldn't find many records on what happened on Eden Prime after the botched retrieval of the Prothean Beacon, though."

The Salarian then motioned for them to follow him out of the dock, continuing their conversation despite Eve's continued silence. "Am I right to say that something occurred in the Prothean ruins that woke you up?"

"Splendid information gathering, inspector." Eve applauded the SPECTRE, amused, before repeating what she had said days before. "Alas, you are wrong. I have told you that I have been traveling for a long time, haven't I? Eden Prime is only the place where I first contacted the human _civilization_. Nothing more, nothing less."

Seeing that nothing seemed to contradict what he had observed and what was said before, Jondum nodded slightly and picked up the pace. Their destination didn't escape Eve's notice, but she chose not to say anything, unlike her daughter.

"Are we going to the Citadel Wards, Mister?"

The Salarians slowed marginally, explaining quickly. "The Councillors wanted to bring in some scientists and archaeologists before they start questioning you about your civilization and technology. For the time being they think it would be best if you become acclimated with our civilization, seeing that you have never seen a galactic civilization before."

It made some sense, although Eve saw it as the Councillors wanting to show her the finer points of their society and superiority in an attempt to convince her that sharing technology with them is the best thing to do in order to preserve the legacy of a presumably perished civilization.

On the other hand, their actions could also be seen as greedy scavengers who wanted nothing more than to get their hands on the technology and knowledge of long-gone civilizations. Worst of all, when Eve reviewed their history and scientific achievements from the data in Shepard's Omni-Tool, most evidence supported such an assumption.

Despite her promise to Anchor saying that she would leave something for this galaxy to give them a fighting chance against the onslaught of an ancient machine race, she was still debating how she should go about it and what she should give them.

Shaking her head slightly, Eve shelved that thought for the time being as she and her family got into the transit vehicle behind the SPECTRE alongside dozens of passengers who were too busy minding their own business to notice them. She and Anchor took the vacant seat next to the window as the vehicle lifted off of the ground, beginning its journey to the Ward arm. As they were moving, Eve took the time to observe the others in the bogie, from the frowning human who checked the watch on his Omni-Tool every now and then to a Turian that stood ramrod straight like a soldier. Anchor watched the scenery float by outside the window.

Once they were near the transit station at the base of the Citadel Ward, Eve quietly watched as the other passengers prepared to exit the moment the craft docked. She mused to herself quietly. "No matter the age or place, the people remain the same, hm?"

"Is there something you need?"

It seemed that her musings caught the attention of her 'guide', which she dismissed with a brief wave. "It is nothing; mere musing, if you will."

The Salarian SPECTRE blinked rapidly, pondering her words before letting it slide and gesturing towards the door and almost empty carriage. "All of the passengers have left. I suggest we move now."

"Ah," Eve nodded slightly, signalling for everyone one to walk out. Soon they were on a platform that overlooked the sprawling metropolis of the Ward arm.

The SPECTRE lead them to a nearby elevator that brought them down to where another residential section was located. Although Eve had read about it, seeing this 'underground city' with her own eyes still amazed her. It held a much different feel than the underground cities in her homeworld.

"I take it that you enjoy this part of the Ward?"

The SPECTRE's voice rang out from her side, making Eve turn to look into his frog-like eyes. She looked around the street, past the shops and habitats that were built into the walls that lined both sides of the road they were walking down. "It's peaceful. It reminds me of times before our planet died."

She paused before continuing. "However, the structure has no life. It feels as if something is missing, something that can only be found in naturally habitable land." She pointed at a nearby store that was selling something in a metal box to a customer. "If I were to draw a parallel, it would be like living in a metropolis that is set aside from the countryside. I prefer something a little greener."

"I can't say that I'm surprised," Jondum said, his pace quickening as he lead the synthetic family down the road while ignoring the strange looks they got from the other passersby's every now and then. "It's a little strange, hearing such words coming from a being like you."

Eve inclined her head subtly, eyes constantly roaming the scenery while replying to the SPECTRE neutrally. "It is hard to believe that a Nasod would be capable of appreciating the beauty of nature. Considering your lack of experience with our kind, it is unsurprising."

Jondum nodded in understanding. Their civilization didn't particularly interact with any type of synthetic on a regular basis. As they turned the next corner, Jondum arranged his thoughts and asked, "I want your honest opinion. What do you think of organics?"

She halted, glancing at him strangely. The SPECTRE instinctively tensed, ready to draw his sidearm should he have somehow triggered some kind of programming by mistake.

However his worry was for nothing, as the corner of the synthetic's lips curved momentarily before she dramatically placed a hand over her chest, speaking with a complete poker face that nearly ruined the moment. "You wound me, inspector. After all we have been through, you still do not trust me?"

Eve lowered her hand upon seeing no reaction, proceeding to answer the question seriously. "Leaving that aside, I cannot chose how one comes to be alive. Organic, synthetic – they are words that merely define a living, sentient being of different species."

"So you see yourself as alive?" The Salarian pressed as they continued their walk.

The answer, unexpectedly, came from the petite brunette as she hurried to walk alongside her 'mother'. "Anchor believes that we are alive as you are," she replied shyly, stealing the occasional glance at Eve. "Anchor thinks that anyone who can contemplate their own existence is alive and sentient, regardless of their origin."

"I have once asked this question before, but I will repeat it once more: what in your organic body cannot be compared to a synthetic one?" Eve opined, her eyes examining the Salarian from head to toe. "Is how your Biotic powers not clue enough? Activated by the pulses of your nervous system?"

Jondum nodded in acknowledgement, the group remaining in silence until they came to a stop next to a place bustling with dozens of C-Sec officers from many different species going about their business. Some of them recognized the SPECTRE and greeted him, while other eyed Eve's group questioningly. A Turian C-Sec at the reception desk asked if they were to take custody of the group.

"No," Jondum replied, his eye twitching. "Due to some unforeseen developments during my mission, I deemed it necessary to look after these people for the time being."

"Will you need an escort?" The Turian asked out of concern, doubting that the SPECTRE had any training in babysitting duty.

Jondum shook his head immediately before beginning to speak about why he was actually there. "No, I can handle this. But enough of this. Has there been any news about–"

The discussion was, predictably, about the recent thievery of valuable artifacts throughout the Citadel-controlled space. Jondum wanted to get back to tracking down the thief that had fooled him into stranding himself in a quarantine zone back at the Horizon as soon as he possibly could.

It didn't take long for the SPECTRE to realize that his demands would take a while to be met, what with the scores of planet law enforcement records to search through. He decided to tell the receptionist that he'd be back in a few hours, calling out to the synthetics who had been waiting for him in the meantime.

"Is this place not secure enough?" Eve asked rather blandly. Jondum was certain that she was teasing him, but he didn't let it bother him.

"I promised to show you the Citadel, not confine you to the C-Sec office. Do you have any place in mind that you want to see?"

Eve tilted her head and stepped around the SPECTRE, before glancing at Anchor and replying coyly. "Your words may cause some misunderstandings, inspector."

Jondum shrugged, gesturing to the empty surroundings and the C-Secs who were busy with their computer terminals as a silent answer.

Eve nodded. "As you have said before, this is the first time we have been on the Citadel, thus we have no preference nor previous knowledge." Of course, the last time she had been here she was secretly delivering Remy to Shepard and never went beyond the Normandy, but he didn't need to know that.

Satisfied with the answer, Jondum turned around and started walking away from the C-Sec office with the Nasod family following behind quickly. It quickly became clear that the SPECTRE was obsessed with catching the interstellar thief, because as soon as C-Sec was unable to provide him with information, he went straight to the next place for more.

Deciding not to say anything, Eve continued to follow until it became clear that their destination was a nightclub that was most definitely not appropriate for Anchor to enter. However it seemed that Jondum recognized this, and directed them to go elsewhere as he entered the den of debauchery to meet with his informant.

At first glance it may seem like Jondum was behaving carelessly, but he had already taken the precaution to install a tracking program on Eve's Omni-Tool so he could find them if they got lost. He trusted them to not run off because they had proven themselves many times before that if he wanted to make them stop he couldn't anyway. It was better to make a good impression in this situation.

Once the SPECTRE was out of sight, Eve quickly took Anchor's hand and led her away from the area, ignoring the looks from bystanders. "This is not a place for innocent young girls like you, Anchor," was all she said once they reached the normal commercial district.

Anchor looked up to see Eve's concerned look before speaking. "Mother Anchovy once came to a place like that to find orphans who went missing. She was almost kidnapped herself if Mr. Smith had not come to rescue her."

Eve looked at her daughter, prompting her to continue solemnly. "They couldn't find the missing orphans, mother. They still couldn't find them when mother departed from the orphanage."

"Not every story leads to a happy ending, my child," Eve spoke up, condolences seeping into her voice. "But alas, like what I have told you on Horizon, you should not judging these places as evil. They just –"

"–they do not have the knowledge of what goes on inside."

Eve and Anchor turned toward the butler. "Ah yes, thank you Oberon." She patted Anchor's head. "Of course, I believe that you already know what is being done inside; however, your appearance will cause trouble for the SPECTRE and many others. There are also much better places to see than that, do you not agree?"

Anchor smiled brightly. "Yes, mother." She paused, turning to look at a nearby alley and speaking in a low, worried tone. "Mother, did you open the portal back to your home?"

Eve didn't answer immediately, glancing at Oberon and Ophelia before they silently moved to block the entrance of the alley from view. She smiled resignedly. "Let us say that certain meddlesome people decided to annoy others for the sake of his own agenda."

Just as she finished, the sound of something hitting the floor followed by a squeaking noise and soft whispers that only the enhanced ears of a synthetic could hear.

Before Anchor could ask who was coming, two human females emerged from the shadowy alley. The first was a brunette barely taller than Eve; her glistering blue eyes complimenting her bright smile as she made her way to the group. The second was a bit shorter, a blonde with bewitching blue eyes that contrasted with her companion with her cold, no-nonsense scowl on her pale face. The two of them had the same neck-length hairstyle and matching uniforms that consisted of bland khaki shirts and trousers. They wore similarly colored greatcoats that complemented their black boots. The only other colors on their uniforms were the red and gold stripes on their collars, like some sort of military rank.

Eve didn't seem bothered by the little blonde's scowl and smiled slightly as the two stood ramrod straight in a clear display of their profession. But as the two were about to salute, Eve stopped both of them by greeting first. "It's been five years, one month, and ten days since we last heard from each other. Isn't that right, _Argent_?"

The blonde's face turned slightly pink as she mumbled. "Don't remind me of that title, ma'am. I've been an instructor for a few years before the king pulled me into this because of that Glave." She growled out the last name.

Eve's smile didn't falter. "You cannot deny that you earned that title so you might earn your current occupation and that it defines you in other's eyes."

The blonde let out a sigh without replying, while the taller brunette smiled apologetically at Eve in silence.

"My condolences, however this is news to me." Eve tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Why did Glaive manipulate your king? It is beyond my understanding. Normally he would approach his targets directly instead of through others."

"My thoughts exactly," grumbled the blonde who crossed her arms, scowl lessening before being replaced with a questioning look before she shook her head. "No, at least that guy is better than 'X', as he at least had a better goal than getting people to worship him and stroke his ego."

There was a hint of approval in her tone, which was only understandable to those who have gone through the many trials of the manipulative Keep of Henir, though the 'X' part was a mystery, something personal to the blonde which Eve or any of her peers never pry to this day.

Eve took the time to observe her surroundings before a loud growl came from the women's stomachs, both of them having the decency to blush as the Nasod Empress hid a smirk. "My apologies; it seems that you have not had time to eat before being brought to this place far from home. As this is the first time I have been to this area of the Galatic Capital, I cannot recommend a place to eat. Would you care to accompany us as we explore?"

Thanks to Glave, Eve now had two more stomachs to feed and had to come up with an explanation for her so-called 'caretakers', if she still wanted to make a difference.

Perhaps Elsword's white knight syndrome had been rubbing off on her more than she anticipated, else she wouldn't go to such lengths to help this community that she might never see again.

At this moment, Oberon and Ophelia abruptly turned to the side as the SPECTRE came walking down the street with a dark-skinned human male in a dark blue System Alliance uniform, making a beeline to Eve's group.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting. Some complications arose," the SPECTRE said quickly once he was in earshot, stopping rapidly as he saw the other 'humans', a quick glance at the short blonde giving him all the information he needed before he rounded on the synthetic. "Eve, who are they?"

Before anyone could respond, the dark-skinned System Alliance officer voiced his thoughts, glaring at the two newcomers. "Why are you two in Great War uniforms? Surely there aren't any human cosplay events going on in the Citadel right now."

The brunette blinked in confusion while the blonde continued to blush as her stomach continued to protest, making Eve chuckle. "I believe that we should postpone this until they fill their stomachs," she paused, dropping her voice subtly to indicate a hint that only the SPECTRE would understand, "after all, travelling across space is tiring without the appropriate spacecraft."

The SPECTRE twitched, conceding only to ask a question that further confused the human officer. "Very well. But I must ask; do they consume the same food as humans or not?"

"You speak as if they're aliens that looks human, SPECTRE Jondum."

"Because they probably are, **Captain Anderson**, as unbelievable as it might be." Jondum cut Captain Anderson off as he continued to look at the blond and then the brunette who was now conversing with Anchor excitedly about food in complete disregard of military training that her uniform suggested.

"Human food is fine, inspector." Eve replied, seemingly not caring about what going through Anderson's mind at the moment nor the implication of her answer to the SPECTRE. "Can you suggest the place that has good quality cuisine and an affordable cost?"

"It's on my pay, Eve," Came the SPECTRE's reply, while eyeing the two new additions thoughtfully. "Although I didn't expect this development, the pay for my occupation is good enough to cover some unexpected expenses before I foot the bill to the Citadel. Come on, let find some place to eat."

"Do not say I did not warn you."

Her last words made Jondum and Anderson pause, before they dismissed it. It's not like the synthetics will eat with them, right?

* * *

They were in one of the modest restaurants situated within the commercial district of Citadel Ward that was run by humans who migrated to the Citadel many years ago. Anderson didn't know the owner personally, but he and dozens of customers could attest to its cuisine and modest cost despite its lacking aesthetics with the normal grey blue wall, chairs and dining tables, or the strange fetish of the owner who had every waiter and waitress dressed in a French butler and maid outfit. Anderson himself was a frequent regular whenever his missions landed him on the Citadel, many times in the past, long before the Normandy or Eden Prime happened.

In all of his years of service, David Anderson had seen and interacted with his fair share of Biotic users that the Alliance had taken under its wings. The one thing that he learned quickly was that they required more sustenance than the average person to stay healthy due to the amount energy they expended to perform their abilities.

That being said, that was nowhere near what he was currently seeing when he was order to go with SPECTRE Jondum by Ambassador Undina to investigate the synthetics that had his so-called 'chance' at the Citadel Council earlier that day.

Opposite of the table they sat at was a group of synthetics and their human companions. The synthetics ate their food gracefully, uncaring of Anderson as he tried to wrap his brain around why anyone would need a synthetic capable of eating organic foods. To be honest, he wouldn't have pegged them as synthetic at all if the SPECTRE had not decided to tell him about them.

As if that wasn't enough, the two 'human' girls that sat next to them were also testing his sanity by wolfing down their twelfth serving in the time it took him and Jondum to finish their first.

He and Jondum weren't the only ones staring, as some of the customers and waitresses eyed the growing pile of empty plates warily. Anderson quietly thanked that he wasn't paying, but the SPECTRE seemed to be regretting his decision to pay for everything based on the look on his face.

Finally, the two girls ended their meal after fifteen servings, with Eve and Anchor coming in at second with ten servings each. After Anderson and Jondum ordered dessert, mainly just for an excuse to continue using this place, Anderson felt they finally began to get things going.

As expected, Eve started by finally introducing the girls next to them. She gestured to the blonde, who suddenly straightened in her seat with military precision. "Inspector, Captain Anderson, allow me to introduce **Captain Tanya Degurechaff**," here she turned to the taller brunette, "and **Lieutenant Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakova**. Both come from the Velder Kingdom of the planet Elrios."

The synthetic maid narrowed her eyes, while the butler moved his hand as if to ask something, halting when Eve motioned for them to wait. "Before you ask, this planet is not charted, nor does it have a Mass Relay connected to it. These two," she gestured to them again, "have been sent to assess the threat the greater galaxy poses after locating me and being made known of the civilizations here."

Anderson quickly raised his hand. "Wait a minute. Is this the same planet that created the Nasod, or is it the one that you came across during your journeys, the planet that couldn't reach industrial revolution but was in the process of dying?"

Eve tilted her head. "The inspector has relayed what I have told him, yes?" Seeing the Salarian nod, she continued. "Yes to both." She brought a hand up to her mouth delicately, hiding her growing smile as both Jondum and Anderson's eyes widened. "Before you accuse me of lying, allow me to point out that I have never said that these two civilizations existed on different planets."

The blonde, Tanya, looked tense despite the near perfect neutral expression, while her companion didn't even try to hide the fact that she would defend herself if things went south. That disturbed Anderson greatly. Because even though the potential of human Biotics, it was still optional to receive the military training needed to become one. It was clear that these two did not make such a choice.

Despite the cultural differences to factor in, he still couldn't agree with such backwards traditions whether the civilization was born from the remnants of advanced civilization or not.

Once the two were calm, Eve continued. "I stated that when I was released from the preservation pod, the civilization I knew of was in ruins. I never stated that the whole planet became a wasteland with no life on it." She closed her eyes, thinking over her next words before continuing. "The war hastened the collapse of civilization, but while I had slept the life energy was stable. It was just my luck, or even my fate, that when I was awoken the energy began to decline once more, despite the following civilization being a mere speck of dust compared to its progenitors."

"Our planet was saved, but at a horrific cost…" the Captain said, speaking for the first time since they met. Her icy tone matched her blue eyes, making Captain Anderson feel very much uncomfortable. "It is thanks to the efforts of Eve and her companions that we still exist."

The SPECTRE narrowed his eyes, judging that yes, Eve hadn't lied to them. It was his and Shepard's fault for not asking for specifics. Then again, the whole story seemed much too fantastical as a whole and he would've dismissed it outright had it not been know that synthetics can't lie – assuming that their current knowledge still applied.

But then another question surfaced, and this time SPECTRE decided to get to the truth. "So, when you said that your planet was saved it was only temporary?"

"It seems fairly permanent in comparison to our lifespan," replied Eve before she spoke about what started her journey once more, "however this was only achieved by the sacrifice of my friends, prodigious individuals who are said to be born only once in a millennia. I want a more reliable method to stabilize the life energy that does not require so much luck."

That was understandable. Synthetics prioritized logic over anything; of course they'd seek to eliminate luck from the factors in play as much as possible.

Tanya spoke up again. "If you rely on luck, I doubt that your civilization would have come this far." Her face morphed into a twisted, unsettling smirk that could easily send kids and the faint of heart running in tears. "Come to think of it, you're still lucky to have this ancient space station, the so-called 'Mass Relay', and the caches from ancient civilizations lying around for you to find – unlike us, who had to start from scratch."

Anderson and Jondum couldn't refute that.

The waitress delivered their desserts with a quick bow, promptly leaving them. Jondum silently started eating his, contemplating the next course of action. Anderson didn't touch his, staring straight at Tanya and Viktoriya. "I'll be frank. Suppose that you're not human, your civilization has yet to reach space, and your home system has no Mass Relay or Prothean ruins. How did you get here one the Citadel?"

Eve smiled, glancing at Tanya. The blonde huffed, but it was the brunette, Viktoriya, who explained with an innocent smile. "We teleported here."

Anderson coughed, quickly recovering to elaborate. "I mean, what contraption did you use to get here? Obviously you don't have a spaceship, if you were telling the truth."

"That's right," Viktoriya replied, repeating her answer before Anderson could speak. "Captain Tanya and I used a teleport spell to get here."

The SPECTRE choked loudly, drawing the attention of all occupants of the dining table. Anderson wordlessly passed him a glass of water, hopelessly confused by Viktoriya's answer.

Once Jondum regained his breath, he quickly started to rant. "Impossible! Since we've started exploring space and examining Prothean ruins, we've found no records of organic beings with the capability to travel faster than light with their own powers! Otherwise there wouldn't be the need for the Mass Relay or FTL drive on spaceships! [1]"

"Then we're the first to successfully do so," the brunette lieutenant chirped happily, only amending her statement upon a cough from her superior. "Sorry, that title belongs to the _El Priestesses_ and Eve herself. [2]"

The Salarian and the human still had their doubts, and it was Anderson who spoke up first. "So if you wanted to, you could return to your home planet right now without the need of a spaceship?"

It was Tanya who replied, her voice crisp with a matter-of-fact tone. "A spell of this magnitude can't be cast easily, sir. We need time to prepare and accumulate enough energy for such and undertaking."

"Is this why you ate so much?" Anderson interrupted, motioning to a stack of empty dishes that the waiters had yet to carry away.

"Yes. If we use normal daily activity and diet, it would take about a week to charge up enough power to cast the spell to take us home," Tanya explained with a sense of finality, staring straight at Anderson as her subordinate fidgeted as if she wanted to protest.

Eve decided to clarify something, her eyes narrowed. "Of course, I can take them home any time I wish. I must warn you that if you try something… inappropriate, I will not stand idle."

Any other would scoff at her threat to run away from a SPECTRE, the best special agent in the galaxy. But Jondum knew that it was well within her abilities to escape from him anytime she wanted and there was nothing he could do to stop her; their technology was just so advanced and so different that there was no countermeasure available.

From what the SPECTRE could glean, the only thing keeping these people here was their interest in their society, and in the case of the two non-humans the awareness that one day their civilization would have to take to the stars and encounter them. So he must do his best to present his civilization in the best light…

…until they got their hands on their technology or useful knowledge, if the Council's history was anything to go by. Jondum may disagree with its method of advancing their society, but was just cog in the machine who would do its duty without complaint.

_That's for another time, focus on the present._

With that thought, Jondum, sighed. "I understand. Do not worry. We treat all newcomers fairly as long as they respect our customs and remain civil."

Eve and her entourage remained silent. While the blonde Captain might still have her suspicions, she kept herself in check.

Anderson spoke once more, leaning forward and placing his chin on his hands, gaze questioning as he continued to ignore his dish. "I find it hard to believe that your civilization would take interest in the stars long before you found a way to go to space. What happened? I suppose that it relates to recruiting children like you two to be soldiers as well?"

Eve, Tanya, and Vikoria looked at each other with an uncomfortable glance, before Viktoriya nodded. "We were invaded by demons."

"What she means is that we were invaded by aliens from other planets," Tanya elaborated quickly. "As if our planet dying wasn't enough, we had to deal with this invasion at the same time."

"Tanya, they literally call themselves and their species demons, yet you still insist on calling them aliens." Viktoriya raised her eyebrows at her superior, who merely shrugged.

Their statements triggered alarm bells in the System Alliance Captain. He shot up in his seat, all composure gone as a worried look crossed his face. "Did the aliens are Batarians? Did they look like this?" he demanded, projecting a holographic image of a four-eyed alien on the table.

Although they claimed to come from a planet that no one had ever heard of and had yet to reach space – except for their ridiculous method of personal Faster-Than-Light travel – they were still a civilized, sentient civilization that should be left alone, not conquered by a spacefaring species bent on making them slaves to sate their egos and superiority complexes.

Though the SPECTRE didn't say anything, his body language made Anderson know that if they said it was because of Batarian invasion that Eve was here, then things would become even more complicated. Not because the Batarian didn't report their first contact, but because then it meant that they would possess some of the ancient technology that rivaled the Prothean's achievements, like Eve and Anchor's ability to phase through solid objects, placing the Citadel at a disadvantage if they managed to reverse-engineer any of those technologies.

They still had time, as this civilization, though advanced, had yet to reach space when it fell. An ancient technology developed without the influence of Element Zero, the Mass Relay, or Prothean technology couldn't be reverse-engineered so easily. Not only that, but there was the matter of finding blueprints or equipment buried for millennia that was still in working order, which was the hardest part and could jeopardize the process completely.

Luckily for Jondum and Anderson, said ancient technology was sitting next to them. There was still some hope. Luckier still was the fact that Tanya and Viktoriya didn't hesitate to shake their head at the image, even when Anderson changed the pictures to other species, most of which lived in the Terminus systems, just in case some Warlords or Pirate gangs were the ones responsible. That finally calmed Anderson down, allowing him to relax.

_At least that explains why they took so much interest in the greater galaxy or why there are child soldiers, _thought Anderson, shooting the two apparent teens in military uniforms a sympathetic look. _Even if they were somehow able to repel the Alien invasion, the loss would still be astronomical – and there's no guarantee that the aliens won't come back for a second round. They can't even evacuate their planet en masse either. The obvious solution is to find allies._

It also somewhat explained why they sent female soldiers; given how Eve described their society being pre-industrial revolution, the male population right now may be close to extinct because of the war with advanced aliens.

Taking a quick glance at the Salarian, he guessed that he was thinking the same thing. However, the SPECTRE had something else to ask.

"Eve, did you say that you wanted to find the cause of your planet's death?"

Eve nodded. "That is my primary objective, inspector. I never intended to come across other life forms. The two have a different primary objective," she said with a gesture to the two in question for emphasis.

"It's been a… year since Eve's departure. This is a separate mission from our king. Checking in on her is a secondary objective." Tanya struggled a bit with the timeframe, but the two from Citadel assumed it was because each planet had its own rotation cycle, and since Tanya and Viktoriya literally came from a planet that had no access to space travel, they'd be confused as to what to call it anyway.

Having them speak a recognizable language, albeit with a heavy accent, thereby eliminating the need for a dictionary or translating software was a blessing in itself.

At this time the SPECTRE decided that they had stayed in the same place for too long, calling the waiter over to foot the bill before they all headed out onto the street of the undercity below the Citadel Ward once more.

Walking down the street in silence, the Salarian contemplated how to show the newly arrived human aliens the good of the Citadel and galactic community so they could go and tell their homeworld of all the good they saw, while Anderson contemplated how to convince Udina and the System Alliance to accept these newcomers as humanity's long-lost relatives and new allies to ease tension between them and the galactic community – but that would need some convincing evidence, of course.

This left Eve's group to look around to their heart's content. The SPECTRE couldn't be more glad that they were in a commercial district instead of a questionable area like when they arrived, making it easier to prevent information of the pre-space flight newcomers from falling into unsavory hands, like those connected to slavery, for example.

It also gave him time to arrange his thoughts, if nothing else.

From his deductions, it seemed that Tanya and Viktoriya used unknown means to lock onto the coordinates of Eve's position to perform their FTL ability. Speaking of which, he still couldn't wrap his head around the concept that an organic could travel faster than light under its own power, and that said organics, based on a subtle scan he performed while they were investigating a music store, were human in almost every aspect except for their unusually small body size compared to the average System Alliance woman and the lack of Element Zero in their bodies.

Jondum dismissed the theory that they were scammers from the System Alliance almost as soon as the thought surfaced; Captain Anderson was here and he was just as surprised as him to learn that there were more humans that didn't originate from Earth out there in the galaxy. If so, does that mean that the humans of the System Alliance have the potential to be like the ones before them?

The SPECTRE threw all those thoughts aside; that was the duty of scientists and geneticists to figure out. He tapped on the Omni-Tool to contact the C-Sec about an appointment with Councilors, thinking about asking Eve and her group to go back to Presidium.

Or at least, that was the original plan.

The Siren, a signal for all civilians to take shelter and for C-Sec officers to take up arms howled across the streets. Many bystanders stopped in their tracks, confused for a moment before the power suddenly blacked out. It quickly restored itself, accompanied by the robotic voice of a VI only used in emergencies to drive the point home.

_"–Emergency! Emergency! The Citadel is now under attack by hostile forces in large numbers. All civilians and non-combatants must seek shelter on the lower level of the Ward arms immediately. All C-Sec personnel must report to your station and be ready to assist in evacuation and repel invaders at once! This is not a drill! Emergency!"_

That set off a chain reaction of panic. Citizens screamed and started running around, some piling up inside the buildings as if that would shelter from the invasion. Others stood, trying to call their loved once and check if they were okay, only to grimace as they were shoved, pushed, and knocked aside by the hysteric crowd.

A beep from Jondum's Omni-Tool alerted him to a communication stream from the main C-Sec headquarters. He looked around and only saw chaose, while Anderson and their guests were tense but otherwise calm and collected.

Another beep warned him of an incoming call, this one from **Executor Pallin **who wore a grim expression on his face. _"SPECTRE Jondum, things are not looking good. The Citadel defense fleet is in a disarray and heavily outnumbered. Initial scans show that Saren isn't pulling any punches during this invasion; he has a dreadnought bigger that the Destiny Ascension itself and a lot of Geth cruisers and other ships. We cannot call the Citadel control on the Presidium. They cannot seal the station. We're wide open as it is!"_

"Citadel controls are sabotaged from the inside!" Exclaimed Jondum with wide eyes of disbelief. "There are traitors in the control station!"

_"Precisely. The last signal from Presidium detected multiple groups of synthetics, probably Geth, roaming around and multiple requests for reinforcements." _The hologram nodded, pausing as the sound of chaos leaked through, presumably from the C-Sec officers preparing for combat. _"We're currently tied. Multiple cruisers and frigates are over the Ward arms. We have to prepare to repel a ground assault."_

Jondum's blood ran cold. They broke through the Citadel defense fleet that fast?

"How about reinforcement from other fleets?" Anderson suddenly barged in.

Despite being interrupted, Executor Pallin knew that this was not the time for argument and replies crisply. _"Communications through the Relay are down and the Relay isn't responding to ships that tried to retreat through it. We suspect the Geth somehow shut the Relay down. We cannot call for help, Captain. We have to make do with what we have here."_

"What do you want me to do?"

_"Normally I would ask you to sabotage their chain of command, but Geth don't have one." _He grimaced. _"We have no men to spare; the defense fleet is occupied and all defense turrets are offline. Multiple ships has been hovering over all Ward arms and dispatching troop to the upper level of Wards. Personnel and civilization casualties are incalculable up there. We have to lure them down to the undercity, initiate urban warfare, and prevent them from reaching civilian shelters at all costs. I doubt the Geth will take prisoners or allow them to surrender."_

"So, it's victory or Valhalla, then?" Tanya said suddenly, an unsettling smirk settling across her face. Eve shook her head upon seeing the questioning look from the SPECTRE.

"The only choice is to win this battle or die trying," Eve clarified.

_"Precisely," _came the grim response from Pallin over the hologram. Then the ground began to shake, knocking over panicked civilians as Pallin shouted through the communication line for the last time. _"As much as I distrust your agency, SPECTRE, allow me to tell you this. The Councilors are now aboard the Destiny Ascension as per protocol. You're no longer able to do anything on that front, so do everything you can to stall the invaders and protect the civilians. Pallin out."_

Without further ado, both Anderson and Jondum used their Omni-Tools to gain access to the information network was still running to assess the situation while Eve and her group gathered around them, Oberon, Ophelia, and Viktoriya forming an outer circle to watch for oncoming danger.

Despite the fear that the Geth might hack into or shut down communications, some networks were still working. A map of the sector they were currently in was currently up in a hologram, hot spots where the C-Sec was battling invaders and positions of shelters noted.

As they studied this, Anderson turned to Tanya. "Do you and Viktoriya have any weapons?"

Tanya flasher her greatcoat once, showing what looked to be collapsible equipment made of wood and metal inside. His hopes were dashed when she told him just what it was. "We have collapsible utility shovels [3] that can function as spears, sir."

Anderson reprimanded himself for expecting too much from a civilization that had seemingly yet to discover gunpowder. But before they could argue further, the SPECTRE had picked their first destination. He closed the hologram and pulled out his gun, Anderson following suit.

"Let's go."

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] When you think about it carefully, how can certain 'giant alien' we discovered in Mass Effect 3 travels through space anyway? It's not like they have spaceships after the Star Brat and his Reapers toys was through with their civilization or did they?**

**[2] This is quite spoiler for Elsword story, specifically how you get to "that place" in previous chapter.**

**[3] The most practical military tool since ancient time, even today we still use it! Laugh at it if you want, it won't change this fact.**

**I'll leave you readers to figure out where I get these two new characters from. They're not OC, I used them because I don't think my writing can do someone named Walter von Schenkopp justice.**

**I have nothing to say to excuse about how late this chapter was. And I wonder if I should name the next chapter "Sempai Noticed the Geth" or not. It's joke for people who played Stellaris to know. But "Spearman vs Giant Death Robot" is another tempting name as well.**

**Like said at the beginning, this chapter and those that will come after are partially influenced by Fallen Empires in Stellaris because Elrios civilization fit that mold quite well.**

**Rate and Review as you see fit, until next time.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Foreword: this chapter and the next is heavily inspired by Stellaris, namely the earlier day of the game release where players tried to gang up on Fallen Empires at the start of their game, if you know what happened when you try that in Stellaris, well, it'll spoiled this chapter, and a chapter after this.**

**Please extend your thanks to MidnightBlaz3 for Beta reading this chapter as well.**

* * *

**Chapter 18: Dependable**

"I just know it," Tanya sighed as the Frog-person – SPECTRE Jondum - next to her poked his head out of the corner to take a look at an empty street for potential hostiles. He turned to do hand signals to tell everyone behind to dart to the next concealment large enough to hold everyone a few dozen meters away with Ophelia and Oberon falling behind as rear guards, "my luck still sucks, doesn't it?"

"Sometimes, some factors will be beyond our control. We're just part of an endless universe full of possibilities after all," Eve replied sagely as they crouched down next to a large cargo transport that was abandoned on the street. Her golden eyes glanced at Captain Anderson and Jondum, who began moving forward while telling everyone else to hold position for a bit. She continued the conversation when she was sure those two were out of earshot, ignoring the explosion sound from the distance and the siren that was still broadcasting to the whole Citadel Station, "but perhaps, this can be a good opportunity for you. Just like traveling here gave me the idea to saved my friends."

"How?" it was Viktoriya who spoke up with a worried look on her face in place of her Captain. "With all the chaos around us and their capital invaded, how could this be an opportunity? I think we have to abort the mission early, as much as I don't like failing."

Eve didn't answer the tall brunette immediately, but it wasn't hard for Viktoriya's superior to catch on. She let out a sigh when she realized what the Nasod Empress was thinking, "It's a good excuse to blast those invaders without repercussion as part of _'threat assessment'_, right?"

"Yes," Eve replied with a straight face, signifying how serious she was about it, "though my family and I have fought against them before, we did it with as much subtlety as possible and from the shadows, a luxury that we do not have this time around."

Tanya didn't question one bit about how they could triumph when facing off against a space-age civilization which had war technologies millennia more advanced than the whole Elrios had to offer. Tanya could trust the Nasod Empress to make logical decisions and not take any unnecessary risks. In fact, if it comes to serious matters, she trusted Eve more than most, if not all, snobbish nobles from the various Kingdoms she and Viktoriya once served under!

After all, it's hard not to after so many inept decisions of the high nobles which put them in suicide missions one after another. If not because of their sheer determination, luck and the timely interventions of the El Search Party, she wouldn't be alive right now.

Of course, she only trusted the level-headed people of that group such as Rena, Raven, or Eve. But not so much on their so-called leader, and especially not that white haired crazy brat and his toys.

Even now, how those reasonable and rational people could put up with having that brat be the leader to the end was still beyond her understanding.

_'How the hell was he related to the knight captain is beyond me as well,'_ Tanya sighed inwardly as she started moving along with the rest of Eve's family to the next alley. Her face contorted in annoyance, _'at least that final war weeded out all of the incompetent people at the top. I got myself and Viktoriya a nice teaching position and a good salary out of it. But to get thrown back to the bloody work like this again? Urrrgghh!'_

"Captain, what's the matter?"

Her wingman, Viktoriya asked from the side, clearly disturbed by her growing frown. Thus, the petite blonde shook her head and diverted suspicion by speaking with a professional, no-nonsense look, "Nothing Visha, just contemplating on what motivation that man had for getting us into this."

"I have some ideas," Eve, who was listening in to the conversation, opened when they began moving again by the signal from the SPECTRE hiding in the distance, "but it's a bit too late to worry about that. For now, we must play our part just to survive, if nothing else no?"

Catching the slight smirk on the Nasod's lips, Tanya had a foreboding feeling, but didn't voice it out loud and let Eve broke silence again while they dart towards the next cover by asking out of concern, "Speaking of which, are you two, by any chance, out of shape by not exercising or doing regular drill when getting a desk job during the past five years? If that's the case, I'll have to shelf the plan I thought up and think of a new one."

"We're combat-ready, ma'am." Tanya replied. As much as she hated being manipulated by that man, her belief in doing her utmost in her respective role and mission from superiors prevailed.

Besides, if by chance they cannot continue their mission, being in Eve's good grace (they were already acquainted, but people can change in five years after all) means that she has powerful allies to explain the Velder king in case they failed. He couldn't dismiss words from a leader of another sovereign nation that were their long-time alliance so easily.

Eve nodded in understanding. But then everyone quickly dropped to the ground and began rolling behind one of the abandoned air car short of Jondum's and Anderson hiding place. They heard humming sounds coming from above and their sense of danger took hold, just in time before the ground they stood be strafed by gunfire from a pair of Geth drones that floated down the street.

Eve's retainers, Anchor and the two 'Velder scouts' were up on their feet and took out their respective weapons as the drones turned around for another strafing run. But before any could act, Jondum and Anderson poked out of cover and started shooting at the drones, stripping down their kinetic barrier and pelting its dark hull. When the drones adjusted their aim for the new threat, it was too late as they exploded violently into metal bits when the gunshots penetrated their fragile hull and hit their vital components.

Once the coast was clear, no one needed any persuasion to get up. They rushed towards the narrow alleyway where Anderson and Jondum were and quietly slipped inside.

"It seems the Geth have breached into the undercity," Jondum spoke up the moment everyone was gathered in the hiding place. He pointed at the exit of the alley, "Our destination, the first shelter, which is the closest C-Sec branch office to us, is about four blocks away. The Geths are sieging the shelter, but C-Sec won't hold for long if they bring anything heavier than heavy machine guns," he inhaled sharply, "like a pack of Krogans."

Once again, all of them quickly moved out of the alleyway and ran down the street towards the destination. When the path seemed clear, the explosion sounds in the distance seemed to agitate Anderson more and more, even Jondum narrowed his eyes.

Unfortunately, once they turned another corner, a store about fifty or so meters away exploded, sending glass shards onto the street along with a dozen of fully armed Geth bipedal platforms which had their guns trained at the group, who was now in the open with no cover nearby.

Oberon didn't waste time shoving the Salarian and Alliance Captain down on the ground as he moved up front with both of his arms up in guard position. He was just in time to project an energy shield, blocking the rain of hypersonic bullets from harming anyone behind him. Ophelia popped her elbow and lobbed a couple of grenades arching over Oberon's shield towards the Geth while the rest of their party huddled behind the stalwart butler.

But unlike the last fights on Virmire, two, much larger, humanoid Geths painted in red among this group aimed its guns upward and started lobbing micro grenades back. It seemingly assumed that the shield only covered the front of Oberon and not above.

However, unlike the deployable shields or kinetic barriers the Geth used, Oberon could extend his energy shield at will. With fast response time befitting of a synthetic, the shield blocked the incoming Geth's grenades with ease while Ophelia's one struck true and knocked all Geth platforms to the ground except for the giant red Geth, who only staggered, but not falling.

Yet, before it could aim its gun again, Eve appeared in front of one of the red Geths and thrusted her palm outward. She struck the chest plate so hard that the Geth platform, three times her height, was sent flying backwards and crumbled in mid-air. Another one had its 'flashlight head' split in half, along with its entire torso area, by a longsword. The wielder – Anchor - appeared behind its fallen scrap heap before the two target the next nearest Geth platforms which fell into temporary disarray when their _'main platforms'_ were lost.

_'Chance!'_

Without the need of orders or instructions, Tanya and Viktoriya's battlefield intuition took over. Their eyes glowed for a brief moment, followed by their forms vanishing into ether and reappearing next to the Geths that were still reeling from Ophelia's grenades. Their utility shovel-turned-spears – which were actually short halberds due to their shovel blades acting as underslung axes and hooks with the extended shafts with pointy ends[1] – were reinforced with their 'power' and swung down on the first couple of Geth who got up on their feet. They cleaved them cleanly in half.

Then the four of them proceeded to rip apart the rest of the Geth squad with little difficulty. They weaved between each platform, using the enemies' body and kinetic barriers as obstacles against the other's gun fire while cutting them down one by one until none remain functional.

Throughout this short, one-sided slaughter, Anderson and Jondum stood up from behind Oberon, looking at the scene in disbelief, their sidearms forgotten. It was when the final Geth trooper turned into scrap metal courtesy to Eve's palm to its back that Anderson finally regains his speech, "SPECTRE?"

Jondum blinked his eyes and turned to the System Alliance Captain numbly, "What is it, Captain Anderson?"

"Is it possible to damage perfectly blended metal armor designed to stop weapons of this era with such archaic equipment?" Anderson pointed at the halberd in Tanya's hands as she and her companion scanned around for danger while Eve and Anchor peered into the demolished store, searching for survivors. "or plain old fists, for that matter," he added while shooting a glance at Eve.

"Possible," Jondum replied quickly while they started walking along with Oberon and Ophelia, joining with the four combatants, "modern combat doctrine puts emphasis on fighting with guns and projectile weapon. Everything revolved around the notion that melee attackers wouldn't even come close before being killed," he then quickly added, "Of course, Krogans are a minority. It doesn't change the fact that even they prefer to fight with guns most of the time now."

As the two rendezvous with the group, Jondum spoke up again, his eyes shifting between the petite blonde and the brunette 'Not-Human'. "The bigger mystery is how those two moved that fast. They didn't have any Eezo in their bodies at all."

"Save the questions for later, we have to keep moving!" Tanya spoke up, deciding to interrupt their wild speculations, as time was premium, all things considered.

That and her irritably tapping halberd on the ground was enough to make the SPECTRE and Anderson hold their curiosity in check. Then Jondum turned to Oberon, who also stared back from behind his mask along with his charge. The SPECTRE spoke in an equally no-nonsense tone, "Can you get to the point?"

"I was about to suggest that, but you kept running ahead," Eve was the one who answered his question. Her blank facade made it hard to know if she was criticizing him for not consulting others or not. Luckily, she cleared it out in the next sentence, "but then again, we're unfamiliar with this place while you do, unlike back on Virmire where everyone was going in blind. So, there's merit in that as well."

"I think he's seeing you as VIP too, milady," Tanya said with her left hand on her hip while the other was holding her halberd. She turned to face the SPECTRE, her blue eyes glared disapprovingly at him, "given how you met milady Eve, I thought you'd realize that as soon as all this mess started."

Jondum didn't respond, for they were right. He forgot that Tanya and Viktoriya were both _from a civilization that successfully fought off an invasion from aliens that had technological superiority before_ and shouldn't be taken lightly despite their archaic equipment. Instead, he dismissed them as the loads, as someone to be protected. [2]

But the Salarian didn't stay silent for long. His mind quickly processed and adjusted to the variables he once dismissed. He then came to a new idea and instructed his 'guests', "You can scout ahead Eve. Avoid combat and come back to report when you see hostiles. It's too risky to communicate with your equipment, given that the Geth might be monitoring the signal now that they've taken control of the Citadel." He quickly tapped his Omni-Tool and sent the map of the Citadel, updated with directions to their route, to Eve's Omni-Tool.

Once Eve nodded in acknowledgement, he turned to the girls who held weapons that should be left in a museum, "I'll be honest. While I'll place you two at the front, you should still wait until the enemy ranks are disrupted by Ophelia's grenades before charging in. But it's only because we don't have much firepower right now, not because you cleaved them clean like that."

Jondum motioned at the scrap heap of Geths, among them their handheld weapons could be seen. All of them were cut, sliced, or turned to scraps thanks to the Geth using them as a final, desperate defense against the incoming attack in the earlier fight, as if he was scolding them for destroying equipment that could be of use. He quickly corrected that potential misunderstanding, "But I understand that this is a battlefield. Asking you to keep their weapons intact would be too much when you all already have such a steep handicap like this."

With that said, Eve turned around and prepared to leave. But Tanya, who's standing next to her, placed her hand on the synthetic's shoulder, stopping her. As soon as Eve turned around, the petite blonde narrowed her eyes and whispered, "Should we go _'louder'_ than this?"

The petite blonde tapped the halberd's shaft on the ground for emphasis which got Eve to tilt her head a little before glancing at the other two natives of this galaxy. She replied loud enough for Jondum and Anderson to hear, "Conserve your true strength for the main course. Fighting down on the ground is but a Hors d'oeuvre compared to what you usually do."

"Was it necessary to speak in such a roundabout way?" Tanya muttered, the petite blonde wasn't annoyed much because the message was clear as daylight to what the Empress wanted them to do in the near future. But she still wondered what the point of this secrecy was when they're going to go 'loud' anyway.

Then again, this is the Empress of Nasod she's talking to. She always had reasons for any decisions and actions, unlike a certain redheaded brat that the Nasod used to traveled with. Perhaps she followed him in order to restrain him from doing stupid decisions along their journey? Hell if Tanya knew, but it was clear that it's not as successful as one might think when Eve, that Demon princess and her bodyguard were the only members of that Search Party who were still active as of now.

Don't be mistaken. She respected what that brat did to saved Elrios from imminent doom. But part of her doubted if it would come to that had he made more mature and rational decisions along the way. No one wouldn't need to be in this galaxy in another dimension because Eve wasn't satisfied with said price.

Tanya herself wasn't satisfied with it either. Back then, when she went to greet the returning of the remnants of the El search party as part of the elite guards of her king, only she saw what the others were oblivious to. While everyone were sharing condolences of the sacrifices and celebrated the coming bright future, she went to the Nasod Empress in private and learned what might happen in the future if nothing was done.

She continued her life as a mage instructor of Velder with Viktoriya keeping her company as the only member of their unit, still in the service of the crown after the Great War. As much as she wished to climb to higher ranks of nobility and enjoy their privileges, she acknowledged that the opportunities for 'orphans' with no background like her or Viktoriya to rise further was no longer there when the era of conflict has ended. The possibility of gaining attention as the best candidate to sacrifice in a quest to save the planet in the future further demotivated her to just be satisfied with this position.

This society really takes Nobless Oblige seriously, especially after all the snobbish incompetent nobility bit the dust in the Great War.

Then Glaive happened and she found herself at the mercy of his machination for the second time of her life. Not that there's anything bad about the first time though. And so, did the second time, as Eve implied that she just found a new solution to a certain planetary problem which she wanted to go back and try out soon. That made this expedition a little bit better, apart from fulfilling her duty to the crown and the promotions of course.

Shaking all rambling thoughts away, Tanya nodded at Viktoriya. The two readied their halberds and moved forward of Oberon, effectively taking the front row. Eve's form turned transparent and faded away. Jondum, Anderson and Ophelia took the second row at the flank of Oberon with Anchor at the back as rear guard.

They began moving again. However, Jondum decided to take a much narrower path with tall walls on two side. He reasoned that it was to force the attacker to face the pointy end of the halberds and longsword if they try to charge the group and that should make them second guess despite seeing that only Jondum and Anderson has any sort of firearm. Or that was what Jondum thought.

"After six hundred years and we have to return to pikes and shots," muttered Anderson as they proceeded through another corner, with the SPECTRE doing a hand signal for their group to move forward once in a while as per their plan with Eve, "I'm not sure if we're going to be lucky like the last time."

"We have better odds, Mister Anderson," Anchor replied from behind, nearly causing the man to jump. But when he turned to glare at her, she shrunk and looked away apologetically, "Anchor sorry. Anchor sees you worried about us, so Anchor wants to assure Mister that everyone knows what they're doing."

"You speak as if you know them," Anderson questioned.

Anchor shook her head as they moved past another junction with a couple of burning wreck of air cars lying on the street, the driver seats vacant, "Anchor just met them, but Anchor trusted mother."

_'That was surprisingly honest,'_ thought Anderson as they passed another air car that looked like it was strafed by a fighter. He was trying to ignore the gunfire and explosion sounds in the distance, _'but then again, she's a synthetic. Not that there is anything wrong with that though given the current situation.'_

Suddenly, the air in front of their group shifted, heralding the arrival of their white-clad forward scout who sighed, "They've destroyed the C-Sec office branch, we are too late."

The shock of the news didn't last long and Jondum quickly ordered them to go forward while having Eve tell him of the opposition. Tanya quietly listened in on the information while noting how it partly answered why they haven't encounter any corpses at all. But it still did not answer where the heck the other enemies were at.

"Captain," Viktoriya's voice chimed in, making her turn to look at her subordinate who had a disturbing look on her face. She was still scanning ahead and at her right flank cautiously, "What kind of robots, or any space-faring civilization recess to such barbaric cultures like impaling corpses of civilians on a spike? Even we stopped doing those millennia ago."

Tanya sighed and replied back with no-nonsense, still keeping her sharp eyes on her assigned flank as well, "Maybe a trap? Keep watch."

Eve vanished again as the group moved forward. Not five minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

Peering from the alleyway across the street, they saw the C-Sec branch office, which built up towards the ceiling of the undercity about three stories tall. It had collapsed into a smoking pile of concrete and steel. The plaza which held a small garden at the front of the branch office were filled with bloodied corpses of all races, piled up at the base of dozens of giant steel spikes that shot upward, almost two stories high, with one body impaled on each of them. It was as if to intimidate those who dared oppose the invaders.

Once Anderson looked closely at the bodies on the spikes, they moved forward across the street. He widened his eyes in recognition as he took aim at the closest one, "They're the spikes the Geth used on Eden Prime to turn the corpses into synthetics! Watch out!"

The last statement came just a moment before the spikes retracted to the ground, freeing the reanimated corpses. They joined with the dozens of grey-skinned reanimated humans which had several exposed robotic implants that were shambling out of the pile of corpses. They were clearly waiting to ambush unsuspecting victims. They let out bloodcurdling scream and rushed at the group, heedless of the long pointy sticks between them and the livings.

But then again, unlike the pike formation of old, they only had two halberds. It was not enough to deter even dozens of men from charging them, especially when they stepped out into open space like this.

That wasn't their only problem. Dozen more reanimated corpses joined the ranks of the charging 'Husks'. The new ones were made of Turian corpses and looked even more robotic than the 'human Husk' with many synthetic joints, armor plating covering their bodies, eyes that were replaced with four glowing optical equipment [3]. But that wasn't as troubling as each of them were holding assault rifles and started spraying bullets in the group's direction without care if it'd hit the charging 'human Husks' or not. Then again, those Husks happened to have kinetic barriers on par with what Alliance soldiers have, so a stray shot or two won't matter much anyway.

Jondum and Anderson quickly backpedaled from the charging horde, firing their guns all the way. They stopped when they realized that these creatures wouldn't be deterred by such pitiful display of firepower and broke into a full sprint back to the narrow alley they had came from while Oberon, Tanya and Viktoriya were covering their retreat. Though it seemed irresponsible, they knew that they couldn't do anything anyway and would only get in the way should the two halberd-users start sweeping their weapons around instead of holding their two-woman pike wall.

Anderson couldn't help but appreciate the _'Velder scouts'_ solid disciple, despite the charging, screaming Husks and bullets pinging off Oberon's energy shield. The two 'Not-Human' stayed calm while slowly backing away towards their position without missing a step or taking their eyes off the incoming hostiles.

Tanya, Viktoriya and Oberon didn't hold the 'pike wall' formation for long. Once the first two Husks crashed into Oberon's energy shield, the two women stopped their retreat and stepped forward. The pointy ends of their halberds thrusted into the skull of the reanimated dead. Then the two swung their weapons to the side, sending the now-dead-once-again corpses flying, knocking down other Husks to the ground. After the two moved forward, ignoring the bullets pelting on Oberon's shield, they started cracking the Husks' skull that got too close to the shield and chopped their bodies up one by one.

An explosion rocked from behind. When Jondum and Anderson turned around to look, they finally noticed that Ophelia was firing grenades into the far end of alleyway with Anchor, busy holding the horde of Husks that tried to squeeze themselves in to get at her, with plain old punches and kicks as the alley was too narrow to swing her longsword around.

"They came from behind too!?" Anderson exclaimed, while looking for a way to help them somehow. Unfortunately, he had no opportunity to shoot yet. "How did they elude us in the beginning?"

"Anchor thinks they probably inserted from the demolished store earlier," the brunette synthetic said while punching one Husk in the abdomen. It sent the reanimated dead flying as its limbs and all cybernetic implants tore apart in pieces, spraying sickly green fluid everywhere, "They still have ships in orbit around the Wards, are they not?"

That certainly explained why Eve missed such a large group of enemies. They showed up by air dropping through whatever tunnel and connection between the upper and lower Wards after everyone was gone. But that knowledge still didn't help their current crisis.

"We can hold this alley just fine," Ophelia spoke in a monotonous voice while chucking off another set of grenades. It flew over Anchor's head and exploded in the midst of enemies clumping in the alley, "Milady is dealing with the shooters. You two should help Tanya and Viktoriya."

"Get your guns singing Captain, it's not made for showing off!" taunted the petite blonde while she swung her halberd and cut one Husk in half. She then skillfully used the other end of its shaft to stab another Husk in the throat. Viktoriya quickly rushed in and cut the said Husk down while it was trying to regain its footing. Though that would momentarily leave her back open, Oberon quickly sliced the head of the Husk that tried to take advantage.

Occasionally, Husks would release an electrical charge at point-blank, but it was for naught when the three combatants shrugged it off and continued on like it never happened. They parried and dodged every attack sent their way with contemptuous ease while making sure those that got too close will be counterattacked and destroyed in one or two strikes.

In the distance, dozens of reanimated Turians didn't join the fray nor did they provide any supporting fire for the Husks engaging in melee with Eve's group. They were frantically looking around as if they were searching for something. The reason for such behavior quickly materialized in a form of a white bident that suddenly impaled one of the reanimated Turians in the chest before consuming it whole with a bright blue explosion. The rest of them quickly turned and shot at the exploding comrade in hopes of hitting the elusive assassin. Yet, it was to no avail and their ranks continued to die out thanks to a mysterious bident exploding in their chest.

Seeing that the others were fighting, Anderson aimed his pistol at the Husks that were further away from the brawl and let loose. He coordinated with the SPECTRE to focus fire on one of the individual Husks to deplete its barrier and kill them.

Occasionally, the SPECTRE had to put himself in between the reanimated Turians and Anderson to have his kinetic barrier absorb shots from them because the Alliance Captain didn't have a kinetic barrier nor did he armored for combat. Thankfully, that occasion was rare as the Turian Husks were more interested in hunting down the cloaked assassin than to fight them.

This fight lasted slightly longer than the Geth squad earlier, but it's only because there were more Husks that came to reinforce the opposition from the street, along with a squad of Geth Drones that joined in halfway through it. Not that they could change the situation around anyway except for being targets for Jondum and Anderson to shoot at and make the fight last longer.

Once the last of the Turian husks disintegrated in a flash of light, Eve materialized next to Tanya and Viktoriya. They put the pommel of their halberds on the ground to rest, and asked them with teasing smile on her face, "So, what's your opinion on their threat?"

Viktoriya had an amused smile on her face while Tanya snorted as she scratched the back of her head. From her language, it's clear that she restrained herself, but barely. "Let those robot-zombie-bird-aliens or flashlight robots shoot at us while we fight. I'll give ma'am a more accurate analysis. As it is, I'd say that those flashlight robots and robot-zombies are so pathetic in close combat that they're toasted when someone gets up close and personal."

"We did not take a single hit, ma'am," Viktoriya chimed up in thankful tone to Eve, "we're not tired. We're still combat-ready. Thank you for keeping the shooters off our backs."

Eve nodded as the rest of their group gathered at the plaza in front of the ruined C-Sec branch office with some difficulty, wading through the remains of the so-called 'robot-zombies' and the sickly green fluid on the ground.

But those pools of green 'blood' sparked some curiosity in the Salarian SPECTRE's mind as he observed the synthetics and the descendant of their creators. Strangely enough, despite engaged in close quarters combat for the entire time, Oberon, Anchor, Tanya and Viktoriya didn't even have a drop of 'blood' from the reanimated corpses on their person at all despite having some of those fluids on the axeblade of their halberds. It reminded him of something Eve spoke with Shepard while the Normandy was en-route to the Citadel – about their ability to project organic forcefields without Eezo or any technology to cover and protect themselves.

_'At least it partly confirmed the truth of what she said,'_ Jondum thought,_ 'but if it could hold up to bullets is yet to be seen, and despite that girl – Tanya – implied, I'm not confident to let them try. But alas, we may not have such luxury.'_

Thinking it over, he prepared to lecture them, but noticed that they were drawn to one particular spot in the pile of civilian corpses and didn't look at him. Taking a quick look, he also understood what caught their attention.

Among the dead bodies of all races, there were children, even those that shouldn't be more than two years old were not spared. All of them had their head crushed or decapitated, many stabbed and shot, limbs cut or blown off. It was clearly a sign that the executioners didn't just killed them, but put them through torture before finishing them off.

Jondum quickly observed the other's expression, and was hardly surprised when he found the synthetic clad in red narrowed her eyes with hands trembling. While Tanya, Viktoriya and Eve restrained themselves better, the glint on their eyes said otherwise. To be honest, they controlled their emotions better than Captain Anderson if his gritted teeth and frowning face were of any indication. If the SPECTRE was to be honest to himself, the only ones who had perfect control of their emotions among them – and that word is questionable – were Oberon and Ophelia, standing guard over them.

Deciding that it'd do no good to stand around and pray for the dead, he searched the pile of dead bodies and dug out a few intact wrist-mounted Omni-Tools which also got others to help as well. Using state-of-the-art STG cracking software, he managed a quick look at the memory bank in the equipment in hopes of finding information of the opposition that destroyed this C-Sec branch office.

It didn't take long as one of the Omni-Tools belonged to a C-Sec officer who died in this battle. He opened the video file with the built-in holographic projector. It caught the attention of everyone which got them to come closer and watch it with him, except for the synthetic butler and maid.

The video showed the interior of the office, with sounds of gunfire in the background. Then, the camera panned around outside, showing the Geth exchanging fire with other C-Sec officers inside from the safety of their several deployable kinetic barrier projectors while C-Sec used their office as fortification.

Then a mob of Krogan appeared, dozens of them holding several children, most are Asari and Human, as hostage. That made C-Sec stop shooting and some shouting coming from behind the camera holder, which turned out to be civilians who were apparently related to those in the Krogan's grips.

Luckily, the Geths also stopped shooting when one bark of an order came from behind their line. One large Krogan in ornate armor covered in red and blue, blood of Human and Turian respectively, stepped forward through the ranks of Geth troops which parted way for him as if he's their leader. His right hand held a shotgun while another held an Asari child as hostage by the neck. The kid was still struggling desperately and calling for her mother, which only served to agitate the civilian and some C-Sec officers in the shelter even more.

The Krogan looked at the camera, or rather, at the agitated crowds inside the C-Sec office, showing his toothy grin on his reptilian face and massive purple scar on the left side of his face just under the frontal brown plate, unafraid that anyone will try to shoot him thanks to the portable kinetic barrier deployed in front by the Geth. But it was this shot of his face that allowed Jondum to recognize this Krogan.

"Olvesser…" [4]

That garnered the attention of most of the combatants that were watching the video, forcing the Salarian to pause it and elaborate, "A Krogan Warlord, active in Terminus. Wanted for piracy and smuggling, notorious for cruelty against anyone regardless of their age or race. Disappeared two years ago, but from his appearance with the Geth here, it seems that he thrown in with Saren after the promise of a Genophage cure."

Once they resumed playing the video, Olvesser taunted at the screen, or rather, at the defenders in C-Sec office, _"-Bwa ha ha, look at you lot, law enforcers cowering behind the safety of a wall like mice. How courageous you are. Just like when you released the Genophage on us instead of facing our might in combat! And now you're showing your courage again!-"_

"I'm starting to see where this is going," muttered Tanya, which made the Salarian quirk his eyebrows a bit before resuming the video.

Seeing that no one in the office moved, the Krogan Warlord made his next move. He put away his shotgun and sprouted a blade out from the wrist. He brought up the hostage in hand, and chopped the little girl's arm off one by one. With each swing of his wrist-mounted blade, Olvesser mocked the defenders with derogatory words centered around the cowardice and hypocrisy of honorable conduct in battle which the Citadel species never once upheld, and of course, that this was payback for the Genophage.

"Saying about honorable conduct in battle while torturing and executing innocent children, some honor he has there." Viktoriya commented with venom in her voice.

Once Olvesser finished off his hostage with decapitation, the defenders still did not move. He signaled for his Krogan warriors to torture and kill the children off one after another. He even called in a vehicle which apparently served as transport and brought more and more captive civilians to kill in front of the defenders.

After a dozen of children died, a couple of Asari, one was a civilian and the other, a C-Sec officer, charged out, screaming and shooting their Biotic powers in anger before any of the C-Sec personnel could stop them. Things began to snowball when the crowd and some C-Sec officers, who were clearly not disciplined enough, also charged out of the office. The last thing in that video recording was the sound of gunfire and explosions that knocked the recorder to the ground. Then it ended.

Anderson, now boiling with rage, spoke through his gritted teeth, "That bastard. We have to put him down as soon as possible!"

"I wonder what Wrex would think of him?" Eve muttered before she shook her head, "Sorry. That's not important. Inspector, can you find out where they were heading to?"

A few Omni-Tools checked, Jondum finally got a record of the conversation Olvesser had after he killed everyone here, "_-Move it, flashlight heads, we're going to Zakera Central hospital next! Usual, don't you dare use your colossi or bombs or missiles to explode them to tiny bits until I say so. And bring those kids with us, we'll put on a show when those cowards decides to dig in a hole like this one again-"_

"Zakera Central is close to the C-Sec fighter hangar, launch and retrieval facility," Jondum began his rapid-fire explanations while signaling everyone to start moving again, "if we can secure it and if C-Sec still has operational pilots and fighters left, we may find a way to launch them into Citadel inner space to counterattack the orbiting ships. Else, we will never take back the city overhead except for relying on someone to know how to open the Relay from the outside."

"That's assuming that the defenders at Zakara Central don't fall to the same trick," Anderson muttered darkly while he picked up an assault rifle which one of the reanimated-robot-Turians left on the ground. He checked it if it was still functional before using it.

But as they walked past the remains of the sreanimated-robot-Turians, Jondum noticed that Eve was still walking with them instead of activating her cloak to scout ahead. When he glanced at her, the synthetic motioned him to called everyone for a quick meeting.

"I have a suggestion to break the siege and rescue hostages, inspector," Eve announced once everyone was within earshot. She shot the two Not-Human from her home planet a meaningful glance, "that is, if you two are willing to do what I ask."

"We're his majesty's soldier ma'am, you don't have to ask," Tanya replied neutrally, but her underlying tone and her partner's light smile made it clear that they already guessed what exactly Eve's planning to have them do. And they'd do it to its utmost, not only because it was their duty, but also to at least garner some good relationship with the natives and earn themselves a peaceful mission for the foreseeable future. At least, that's what Tanya thought.

However, the same couldn't be said about Jondum and Anderson. It was until Viktoriya hoisted up her halberd that the dark-skinned Captain could connect it with the fact that they're facing a Krogan Warlord and realized what they're planning to do, which made Anderson blurt out before Eve could elaborate anything, "Wait, you're not seriously thinking of fighting a Krogan Warlord with just a halberd are you?"

"I heard that Krogans favored close combat, except that in this time and age they couldn't do that anymore. Right, Anchor?" Tanya glanced sideways at Anchor, prompting the petite synthetic to nod. She continued, "from the recording earlier, I believe that if we challenge him, half of their forces, which are all battle junky Krogans, would be distracted by our fi- ahem - duel, leaving the Geths for a more," she glanced at Anchor again, then at Eve, "subtle method of neutralization."

Eve nodded approvingly. But while Anchor looked at Tanya and Viktoriya with expectation, that left one unsatisfied Salarian and Human to be convinced as they crossed their arms and glared at the group in disapproval.

Seeing those glares, Eve decided to spoke up, "Have you forgotten the story of their homeworld, or their mission? I can say with confidence that they do not plan on losing or dying, and neither do I."

"You just want to avenge those children do you, humiliating Olvesser by beating him in close combat?" Anderson accused.

"I'd be lying if I deny that sir," Viktoriya replied while sending a glare of steel at Anderson which made the man freeze for a second. The halberd on her hands really helped with the intimidation factor despite her cute face and slim body after all. "But sir, do you have any better plan to prevent other hostages from being executed one by one like back there, or a way to fight without endangering them?"

"Besides, that monster is the leader of a band of pirates, essentially their Captain," Tanya spoke up after Viktoriya. She then pointed at her wingman while looking at Captain Anderson, "me and Visha are Captain and Lieutenant respectively, so subtracting our age difference should make us equal to him. Or do you want the honor of being bait in our stead?"

If that nonchalant attitude unnerved Anderson, he hid it well. Nevertheless, he still partly wondered if they're being ignorant of Krogan strength, especially Warlord?

It was Jondum that put the argument to rest by turning to Eve and said, "Explain the details, don't skip anything and I'll consider it."

Unknown to the surprised Anderson, this was another test from the SPECTRE to see whether Tanya and Viktoriya were lying to them or not.

* * *

Near the edge of the commercial district, there was the central hospital of the Zakera Ward undercity, the most advanced, most well-equipped for treating any kind of illnesses that may happen inside this Ward Arm. The building stretched all the way from the undercity up towards the ceiling, having enough room to fit any ill people from the entire undercity.

The only thing that's not perfect, however, was the nature of the Citadel. The ceiling, which was part of its superstructure, was impenetrable except for the nearby porthole which happened to be occupied by the C-Sec office and made the said hole into a fighter launch tube, along with the fighter servicing facility and hangar. Which means that the hospital could service only people who lived in the undercity of the Ward arm while those who lived above must attend to another separate facility.

However, that architecture became a blessing as it prevented enemies from invading through the hospital directly into the undercity while incurring massive casualties on the patients that couldn't fight nor relocate easily. The nearby hangar was also heavily fortified and, due to the sudden attack, it remained so as the C-Sec officers there realized they couldn't launch fighters in time and locked down the fighter launch gate. They closed down one leak and forced the invaders to fight their way through the other part of the Ward first.

Thus, it was this place that become the last bastion of Zakera Ward to come under attack – specifically just about fifteen minutes ago, which gave the hospital staff enough time to evacuate it and go into the C-Sec office and fighter hangar. The C-Sec officers stationed there were preparing for the siege because they couldn't count on the Geth to spare the ills or civilian.

Indeed, the Geth didn't take prisoners. They saw no purpose of keeping organics alive, whether they're civilians or children. They're the same in their logic.

But for the Krogan Warlord that allied with the Geth, it was another story.

Olvesser glared at the rows of empty concrete slabs and sandbags surrounding the entrance of the C-Sec fighter hangar from his own cover across the crossroad with contempt. There was not a single soul outside the C-Sec office. All of them retreated into the building which incorporated the Citadel structure itself into its walls. It made it practically indestructible and forcing attackers to hit the heavily defended front.

Orbital bombardment was also out, as the ceiling was covered with the Citadel superstructure that supported the upper city except for the hangar door. But said door also had a built-in kinetic barrier strong enough to withstand bombardment to that single spot as it was - again - part of the Citadel itself.

And looking up, the front of this building was also covered with kinetic barrier projectors. Strong enough to withstand attacks from tank guns – like six Geth Colossi he had standing nearby – for a very long time.

Unfortunately, said barrier was a double edge sword as it prevented defenders, who peeked over from the second and third floor, from firing back at Olvesser and his troops as well. If nothing changes, both sides will continue this staring match until Saren completed his objective, as whoever dared to cross the barrier line would be turned into beehive before they could even lift their guns.

Olvesser wouldn't allow that. He and his Krogan warriors joined in with Saren not only to cure Genophage, but also show the Citadel Council member species, especially Turian, Asari and Salarian, how much of a weakling, coward and hypocrite they were for the entire galaxy to see before he executed them all for the crime of unleashing the disease on the rising Krogan Empire.

And for that, he had a plan. A plan that he already used back at the other C-Sec branch office despite it not warranting such savagery, but he did so just for the fun of seeing these snobbish elites snap anyway.

"You flashlight heads! Spread out in a half-envelop formation along the street on two sides of the entrance! And don't fire until I say so!" He barked the order at one short Geth trooper standing near him before all the Geths – four dozen in all – did as he told them to obediently leave the center part facing the entrance of C-Sec base for him and his Krogans, hiding behind hexagonal-shaped portable shields arrayed into a wall. Behind them, a transport rolled along quietly, driven by his goon. It came to a stop in the middle of street, close to the crossroad. It then turned around, having the cargo bay facing the defenders, and opened, showing all of them the kids and civilians he captured during the chaos of the first minute of their landfall.

Olvesser could almost imagine the gasping sounds and cries of despair coming from beyond the barrier on the building on the opposite end. His grin threatened to split his face in two as he eyed the first kid his goon brought over to him.

_'Asari. They prided themselves as the best warriors in the galaxy,'_ Olvesser snorted inwardly with contempt as he snatched the crying little girl from his goon's grip, holding her in his clutches, before turning to face the defender beyond the barrier, _'Well, not so much for their baby huh?'_

And so the routine he liked the most – well, second most – begins again as he used the loudspeaker to taunt C-Sec in the barrier. Most of the Turian officers and civilians stayed calm, but the Asaris and Humans on the other hand started to get agitated, much faster than the last station he razed.

_'Good,'_ Olvesser thought as he twisted the right arm of the girl, making her scream loud enough to get the attention of the defenders,_ 'this time, it won't be long then before my men and I could get some workout on those cowards and more people I can put in their place!'_

But when he was about to start mutilating the hapless girl in his grip to rile things up, there was a loud noise coming from the nearby keeper tunnel. It's unlike the usual relatively silent steps of the docile, automated, part-organic and part-robotic tenders of the Citadel.

After he glared at said tunnel, which was just a dozen meters away from the makeshift 'prisoners transport', Olvesser could hear and recognize a scream,_ 'Vorcha?'_

The scream itself was nothing unusual. It was common knowledge, even for criminal gangs in the far reach of Terminus like him, that while the Citadel was found and inhabited for thousands of galactic years, most of this magnificent construct was still largely unexplored, left in the care of the so-called Keepers. Obviously, the keeper tunnel was one among the many places that law enforcement didn't reach. Thus be the opportunity for many who associated with crime to prosper under the capital of the galaxy itself.

Then the second dying scream of a Vorcha echoed out of the small tunnel, much closer to the exit than the first. It was accompanied by rapid footsteps and squawking sounds, like those Vorcha infesting the duct tunnel were running away from something?

Some of Olvesser's goons also turned to look at the tunnel with interest, some even had their fingers on the trigger of their gun, but none were aiming at the tunnel exit. This was not surprising as Vorchas were just a cannon fodder in Olvesser's eyes. This attitude also spread to his goons as well.

The lack of gunfire also served to boost their confidence that it was nothing to worry about.

Soon enough, three Vorchas were backing out of the tunnel, small pocket knives in their hand, pointing towards whatever was coming with fear in their eyes, oblivious to the surrounding Krogans watching the amusing scene nearby.

Then two blurs shot out of the tunnel, a spark of silver passing through the three ugly aliens, sending their heads flying to the other end of the street with gore sprouting from their now headless bodies which collapsed to the ground, painting the grey pavement in red fluid.

Those two blurs, meanwhile, came to a stop one step away from the Vorcha's corpses, revealing themselves as two human females, one slightly short brunette and one petite blonde. Both of them wore the same khaki color, as if they're some soldiers from System Alliance despite said organization use deep navy blue color which puzzled Olvesser a bit.

But what really caught his attention was that the two were holding halberds instead of rifles or even pistols, and their seemingly nonchalant attitude while they were discussing something with each other despite being around a dozen Krogans that had attention on them.

Though Olvesser felt his blood boil for being ignored, he kept it in check for now while observing this strange pair of humans. He ordered the Geth who were turned around and aimed at the pair to get back to watching the C-Sec personnel who may take a chance to attack when part of his forces was distracted.

Besides, it'll allow his goons to have some fun. Most are just freshly cloned Krogans lacking experience in everything, good for testing the unknown factor.

Just when Olvesser thought that, one of the Krogans that was supposed to guard the transport let out a roar and charged at the girls with his shotgun overhead, forgetting that his weapon was a gun and that its primary function was to shoot, not clubbing people with it.

That Krogan received an axe blow for his troubles. The brunette suddenly vanished and reappeared again at the side of the giant lizard. Her halberd swung in from the right side, too swift for him to get out of the way. The axe blade cut its way into his right eye socket, orange ichor sprouting out of the wound along with fragments of bones and brain matter. The poor goon stumbled for a couple of steps before crashing down on the ground, dead.

At the same time, another Krogan also met a messy end when he tried to attack the petite blonde from behind. The petite blonde simply stepped away to the side just a moment before his shotgun could swing down to pulp her head. She then utilized her small frame to slip her halberd down to knee level, cutting off the Krogan's left leg, sending him sprawling on the ground, bleeding. The petite blonde swung her halberd down, its axe blade crashing against the head plate, breaking it and sinking the weapon into the goon's brain, killing him instantly.

Olvesser had to bark orders and had his goons and the Geth go watch C-Sec in their bunker again, all except for one Krogan who was his most trusted second in command. Once they scrambled away, he and his second approached the two humans who were now standing in a ready stance and stared back at him along with their halberd. But they didn't attack because the Asari girl in his grip was between him and their pointy sticks.

The Krogan Warlord wasn't fond of staring matches. He still had C-Sec hiding behind the barrier to humiliate. So he got to the point immediately while still activating his loudspeaker for C-Sec to hear him as well, "Oh look, what do we have here? Two little girls who have more courage and quads than the whole station of so-called lawkeepers of the great Citadel!"

He momentarily glanced backwards at the C-Sec office across the crossroad. Using his eyepiece to zoom in, he looked upon their faces. He could almost feel their embarrassment, rage, anger and despair from those people inside, but he was brought back to reality by the voice coming from the blonde petite blonde.

"You're quite spirited aren't you, barbarian?"

Something in the girl's voice made Olvesser realized that she's not a brat, but a warrior that had already seen battles. A warrior brave enough to confront a whole platoon of gun wielding opponents equipped with nothing but a halberd.

And that excited him.

For that, he'd entertain them a little and take some jabs at C-Sec cowering behind their covers for that matter. Who knows? Maybe this was the catalyst he needed to goad them into rushing out of that fortification of theirs.

So, he began with laughter, "Of course, why would I not be?" He pointed his finger over his shoulder, back at the C-Sec office in the distance. "It's so hard to find someone who actually has a quad this day, even less from those associated themselves with the Citadel."

"Speaking of which, your skills ain't half bad, eh," Olvesser glanced at the corpses of his goons for a moment before looking at the two human and started taunting them, "but do you really think you have what it takes to face me yet?"

"Says the one who needs a child between him and his enemy," the petite blonde countered calmly as she rested her halberd on her shoulder. Using her free hand to point at the Asari kid in Olvesser's grip, she said, "isn't that enough to prove that you don't even have what it takes to face the enemy yourself?"

Her mocking smile and nonchalant posture hit a nerve of Olvesser, but before he could enter in blood rage, his rational thought, forged by countless of battles, took over momentarily and assessed the situation. His bloodshot eyes glanced around the whole two-seventy degree for potential snipers or gunmen waiting for him to fall for the bait and release the hostage.

Alas, his concerns were unfounded. There were no buildings in sight that had any balcony, much less windows for snipers to peek out. The rooftop was stretched all the way to the ceiling of the Ward. The only place where they could hide someone was the keeper tunnel the two girls came out from, and from the angle, the shooter had to expose himself fully to get a shot at him.

Olvesser couldn't believe his luck. It seems that these two human simply got caught in the attack and didn't coordinate with any C-Sec officers while rushing here. Perhaps wanting revenge? Hell if he cared. At last, there's something entertaining to do than killing those dishonorable C-Secs in a gunfight.

"Take care of the kid!" The Krogan Warlord barked at his second while throwing the Asari child to him without looking. He reached for one collapsible equipment on his back, and unfolded it into a giant war hammer before slamming its head on the ground. He gestured to the two 'challengers', "It's been a long time since I have to pull this out, I hope you two will not disappoint!"

With that, Olvesser went on the offensive by jumping with the hammer raised and swung it down on the blonde petite blonde. She and the brunette jumped out of the way just in time, letting the hammer impact on the ground with a loud crash.

The two humans landed nimbly with their leg coiled up like spring before charging at Olvesser with their halberds pointing at him. The Krogan Warlord spun out of the way with agility defying his bulky size and swung his hammer horizontally, aiming at where the duo would've been if they couldn't stop in time.

But he's being too greedy to shoot two birds with one stone, and that cost him. His swing was low to the ground to hit the petite blonde, leaving plenty of room for them to jump over his hammer, which they did. The petite blonde stabbed the pointed end of her halberd to the ground, using it as a pole vault to swing around and kicked him, forcing Olvesser to bring one arm up to guard against her.

That kick was surprisingly strong for someone of her stature to the point that he felt his bones cracked, but Olvesser ignored the pain and tried to punched back. Yet the girl nimbly leaped out of the way while the brunette swung her halberd down on his head, forcing Olvesser to intercept it with the shaft end of his hammer.

The blow from the brunette shattered part of the shaft, but the damaged weapon already did its job at diverting the blow to the side, missing Olvesser's arm by an inch. But as he tried to retaliate, the petite blonde already regained her footing and swung her weapon at his other flank, forcing him to bring up his wrist blade to block it. It gave the brunette time to parry his hammer away and resume attacking.

But as he parried another halberd blow to his side by his wrist blade and another thrust from the brunette from another, Olvesser felt insulted. Not because they were not skilled, but because he felt, from his experience, that they were holding back.

"What are you two do... Grr!"

He couldn't finish his question as he had to deflected another halberd strike aimed at his head with a hammer swing while simultaneously fending off another slash aimed for his leg by twisting his side and intercepting it with his wrist blade.

While he was still angry at the opponents that's holding themselves back, he decided to not taunt or insult them anymore as it was clear that they'd take every opportunity they could to end him. So, he doubled his effort at killing the two humans, unconsciously going after the taller brunette as he felt slighted if he picked the more physically handicap of the two as priority.

It would prove that he was weak if he did that in the presence of a stronger enemy, especially when his subordinates were watching from their position at the battle line. As much as he wanted to scold them for discarding their duty to see him fight, he couldn't further take away his concentration or else these two human girls would run him through in an instant.

And besides, he was certain that the Geth would dutifully carry out his order of watching for C-Sec's movement and ready to turn anyone who tries to come out of their bunker into beehive. They're just obedient little synthetics, Saren proved that to him multiple times during the raids in Terminus after all.

Suddenly, a hum from the engine of the transport almost made him lose his right arm to the petite blonde's halberd swing. He spared a glance while parrying the halberd away, kicking the brunette and sending her flying away. He saw the transport full of hostages moving away from the combat zone, and the driver, along with his second, become a cool corpse on the pavement where it once been.

"What the!?" Saying that Olvesser was shocked was an understatement, but he couldn't do anything more than hoping that his goons - who weren't paying attention to anything but his fight – to notice and go after it as the brunette recovered from his kick and now gunning for his head again.

Some of Olvesser's goons did notice. They raised their guns and fired upon the transport rather stupidly. But to their surprise, there's a shimmering shield blocking their bullets despite this being a civilian transport with no kinetic barriers to speak of.

There were flashes of white light among the Geth's formation when they tried to intervene. Most of their heavy platforms like the Colossi and red-painted Juggernauts were reduced to nothing but bits and pieces scattered on the ground with several white-hot melting holes as if something just carved out a chunk of it.

Then a human girl dressed in red wielding a longsword materialized out of nowhere on top of the last Geth Colossus on the left flank while another unarmed woman in a white dress materialized on another Colossus on the right flank. The red dressed girl wasted no time decapitating the Colossus she stepped on in a swift slice while the woman in white struck her palm down on the Colossus she appeared. And that made the synthetic blown apart into fragments of metal, like a concrete wall that crumpled down by repeatedly smashing a hammer on it.

The two then worked their way towards the other Geths that fell into temporary disarray head on with archaic weapons – or bare handed - that by all reasons shouldn't work on state-of-the-art space age synthetics made of composite alloy and started cutting them down one by one!

That commotion combined with realization that these two human girls was playing around as bait was what pushed Olvesser over the edge. His rage finally took over as he roared in anger and rushed the brunette with his hammer raised above his head, ready to pummel that slip of a girl into fine red paste on the ground while ignoring the blonde petite blonde who was now standing near her partner.

It was at that moment that the two girls he had been fighting for the last few minutes showed their true skills in close combat, as if knowing that there was no reason to stall for time anymore now. Their blue eyes glowed, especially the petite blonde whose lips curved into a psychotic smirk for a brief second. Then the two vanished right before Olvesser's eyes.

Before his impaired mind could registered where they were, the Krogan Warlord felt wind brushing past his neck and legs despite him wearing full-body armored hard suit. He then fell forward, seeing his headless body tumble over his head. He knew no more.

* * *

Tanya flicked her halberd twice to shake off the orange liquid without looking back at the dead body of Krogan Warlord which had his head and legs separated from the torso, lying on the growing pool of orange blood. Viktoriya observed the Krogans surrounding them worriedly as all of them seemed to not care about their Geth allies exploding left and right or the hostages that were now driven away to safety in the least. Instead, they stared at each other as if discussing something amongst themselves.

The brunette decided to call out to the rest of the Krogan warriors, "Your boss is dead now, we suggest you surrender," she spared a glance hesitantly at the C-Sec office across the crossroad behind her, oblivious to the C-Sec personnel that were too busy gawking at the commotion and couldn't hear her, "I believe that the authority will be lenient should you do so."

"Told ya the boss weren't so tuff. He can't even protect his own neck!"

"I'm the new boss-" "No you dumb Varren! I am the boss!"

It seemed that her words didn't reach the Krogans' ears either as they began to quarrel among themselves, for a while, until one of them pointed his finger at Viktoriya and Tanya.

"Whoever gets them 'ead will be the new boss! Prove that you're the strongest!"

Just like that, dozens of Krogan eyes focused on the duo. All simmering conflict disappeared, replaced by the eagerness to test their mettle against powerful foes. All of them raised their shotguns up and aimed at the two before they began firing in their direction.

Viktoriya rolled her eyes while hypersonic bullets bounced harmlessly off the transparent shield she and her Captain created. She lamented, "A waste of breath again."

"Do you really expect giant lizards that killed kids for fun to surrender Visha?" Tanya snorted while her halberd lashed forward and impaled the brain of one charging Krogan between the eyes, instantly sending him to the afterlife before teleporting away to avoid another Krogan's attempt to bash her head with his shotgun-club. She replied in kind by lobbing his head off.

Visha sighed while absent-mindedly swung her weapon to the side and sent another Krogan flying with a huge gash on his right eyes. "It won't hurt to try."

They resumed the fight. Even though Krogans had higher strength and resilience than other species, it didn't matter much when many are tank-bred Krogans who were not even a year old against experienced, nimble fighters like Tanya and Viktoriya who weaved between their bullets and attacks with ease. Once Anchor and Eve dealt with the remaining Geth and joined them in melee, the battle was decidedly in their favor.

Refusing to surrender, the rest of Krogans fought and died to the last.

Despite the fierce fight in the undercity, alas, like Eve described, this was just Hors d'oeuvre. The battle of the Citadel was still far from over and the fate of the galaxy still hangs in the balance.

* * *

**Author's note**

**[1] Well, halberd did look like a mix between spear and axe after all. This's not exactly out of the blue, as certain NPC in Velder's using halberd as well. Also, as one Youtuber put it; who need lightsaber when you have axe?**

**[2] Misunderstanding at its finest, but who care.**

**[3] Since this one didn't require special traits like Asari's Husk, so have anyone wonder why we didn't encounter them in Mass Effect 1? Obvious answer would be developer wasn't thinking about it during the development, but there's no justification in-universe why they couldn't be found during Citadel fight in the first game.**

**[4] Guess where I pulled this name from?**

* * *

**On the issue of Tanya and Viktoriya, I'll try giving them characterization, just like I did with Anchor. But for Glaive, have him do the exposition or explaining his action will make him become out of character, so please bear with his appearance that seem like a convenient plot-device for a while. Again, I'm not adding them because I can, but because there're uses to them.**

**I'll admit that I'm taking liberty in doing battle in the Ward here. After all, they never show what happened there during the Citadel invasion both in first and third game. In the first game it was clear that despite what cinematic wanted you to believes, there're enemy ships inside the Ward arms with Sovereign as well; else, where those dropships you fought on the way to the Council Chamber came from? But the third game, many players rages that their effort at gathering Citadel Defense force did nothing...**

**I must say that the battle of Citadel become longer than expected, with them have to fight their way through the city and rendezvous with others before they can take the fight to the enemy ships. But alas, it because I try not to break suspension of disbelieve here, hopefully I have yet to did that. Don't worries, there still time for more interactions between characters after the dust of battle settled down.**

**By the by, Viktoria is actually Viktoriya. And I just learned that midget is quite offensive word, so I have to change that too. Sorry for inconvenience.**

**Rate and Review as you see fit, until next time.**


	19. Chapter 19

**First, you all must extend thanks to Rosamanelle for his work to Beta read and grammatically correcting this story. Without him, this fanfic will offer much worse reading experience.**

**Foreword: One thing that you must keep in mind when reading this chapter is that yes, the Geth in this scenario are splinter faction from the main Geth, but the main cast at this point in time didn't know that! In fact even in original game you may never know at all until the final game if you turn over Legion to Cerberus in Mass Effect 2. **

**And I have to make it clear to all of readers here that I tried to make the main casts not too overpowered, there're in-story explanations of why they can do this and that, some may be explained here in the chapter while some may need a proper time and place to do so later on, or if all else failed; I may have to create another Mass Effect Codex which many people who wrote Mass Effect fanfic loved so much.**

**Without further ado, please enjoy the read.**

* * *

**Chapter 19: In unity, we are strong.**

_"–__Prophet, we have confirmed the non-functionality of Olyesser. Mission: Capture the C-Sec fighter hangar has failed, all on-site platforms are destroyed. Krogan squad under Olyesser's command are presumed non-functional.–"_

Saren was interrupted from his work by the communication from the Geth. Immediately he slammed both fists down on the holographic control panel that popped up over the Council Petition Stage in frustration – the interruption cost him precious seconds, in which the Prothean code he had spent so long trying to decrypt changed. Now he and Sovereign were back to square one!

As much as he wanted to curse the long-since gone race for their elaborate, complicated attempt to screw him, Sovereign, and the Reapers over, the disgraced SPECTRE's rational mind took over and told him that the Geth must have a good reason to interrupt him like that despite ordering them not to with exception of emergencies. So he opened the communication channel on his end. "Then what do you need my instruction for?"

The emotionless synthetic voice responded quickly. _"-We confirmed the presence of the same self-aware synthetics from Virmire amongst the reinforcements that stopped the C-Sec hangar attack and one new synthetic adept in hand-to-hand combat, presumably self-aware.-"_

As Saren resumed his task of trying to decrypt and undo the Prothean's modifications to the Citadel core program, the Geth transferred the recording of engagement against their fellow synthetics to him for review.

His eyes narrowed as the video showed him the red-clad synthetic that he and the Geth had presumed was a medical synthetic on Virmire tearing through the Geth's small army with little difficulty. Alongside it was a white-clad human woman, who was most definitely another synthetic, considering the way she was smashing the Geth platforms with her bare hands in the recording.

He doubted this was the reason why this was being brought to his attention; he had told them to gun down the one in red before, after all.

_"__-We wish to enlighten them; persuade them to join us under the grace of the Old Machine.-"_

Well, that cleared things up, but Saren also felt displeasure toward the Geth from the Sovereign again. He schooled his features as he thought of what to do. Sovereign left this matter for him to decide upon, so long as it didn't distract him from the task at hand like it did at this moments.

Saren broke out of his thoughts once more when the Geth alerted him to a new complication. _"-Alert, sentries at Conduit report failure to terminate Shepard. All platforms defending Conduit on Illos destroyed. Last recording estimated that Shepard will reach the Conduit with his armored vehicle within five minutes.-"_

Saren glanced at the holo-panel next to him, still projecting scores of Prothean code mockingly. Despite scouring the galaxy for the necessary resources with Sovereign's guidance, it seemed that the Prothean still secured a trick that prevented him and Sovereign from taking control of the Citadel Station and open a gateway for the Reaper's return. [1]

A 'nudge' from Sovereign was all that was needed to tell the disgraced SPECTRE what to do; the sentient dreadnought wasn't pleased with his progress, so another potential contingency wouldn't hurt. The combat prowess of the synthetics still in the Ward Arm was nothing to scoff at. Saren believed that given the defender's state of disarray, they could easily make their way to the Presidium and stop Shepard, buying him much needed time to crack the Prothean codes.

Of course, that was assuming that the Geth could persuade them in the first place, as hacking them to force them to change sides was out of the question – Saren already knew that from their encounter on Virmire.

Speaking of their capabilities, there was a possibility that those synthetics still didn't have any idea what he and the Reapers were planning to do, else they'd be barreling down his door already with the possibility that no one would be able to stop them.

After weighing his options, Saren spoke once more. "How are you going to approach them?"

_"__-Via the public communication channel in the C-Sec. Barrier control and the fighter launch gate are still isolated.-"_

Saren's answer came naturally once he made his decision before he returned to his accursed control panel once more. "Then I give you permission to try to convince them. Do not give them any important information until their loyalty is secure. Set up blockades around the Citadel tower; do not let Shepard come close to the Council Chamber!"

_"__-Affermative.-"_

* * *

Inside the main hangar of the Zakera Central C-Sec Headquarters, chaos was brewing. Despite the siege on the headquarters ending with no casualties on the defender's part, they were still aware of the battle against the homicidal Geth and Krogan raging on across the Citadel with no signs of backup arriving. The C-Sec in the reception area were still trying to placate the masses with little success, and the few bloody survivors fleeing from the other sector of Zakera Ward also made C-Sec job much harder.

The only thing keeping a full blown riot at bay was the constant patrol of fully armed C-Sec officers defending the entrance and the repeated reminders that nowhere else was safe, so it wasn't in the masses' best interest to sabotage the fragile peace and order which will in turn bring swift death to all of them.

From what Anchor saw when she and Viktoriya walked past human families, all of whom huddled together and turned their backs to them, their arrival caused further distress amongst the people despite having cleaned up and put their weapons away. She knew why they were scared, but she was too afraid to say it out loud herself.

Unable to tolerate the silence and frightened glances, Anchor turned to the taller brunette. "Erm, Lieutenant…"

"Just call me Viktoriya," the girl hummed with a smile, seemingly nonchalant despite the stares she received from both alien and human. "What would you like to ask, Anchor?"

"Why are they scared of us?"

The question was barely more than a whisper, but it wasn't a problem to Viktoriya's enhanced senses befitting elite mages. She spared another glance to a C-Sec officer who eyed her warily before responding. "It's natural."

Red eyes shot up and met blue, prompting the brunette to elaborate. "It's natural for people to fear the unknown, and the current crisis isn't helping."

"Anchor… sees," she murmured as the two of them walked into the cramped canteen towards the vending machines siting near the entrance. Anchor was about to press a button when realization hit her, her nerves apparent as she turned to Viktoriya. "Viktoriya, what drink does Captain Degurechaff prefer?"

"Chocolate milk," Viktoriya replied without hesitation, "and I'd like one too."

A few taps and credit transfers later, the petite synthetic grabbed the two drinks and handed one to Viktoriya, walking back to the command room hurriedly.

As they were climbing the stairs, Viktoriya resumed their conversation with a solemn voice and worried gaze. "Speaking of fear… are you going to continue to fight?"

Their pace slowed down. Anchor's eyes flitted to the floor, avoiding the brunette's gaze as she whispered. "Anchor sees no other option, Viktoriya. Anchor can heal, but with the Geth still roaming the station with no signs of help coming, casualties will rise. We have to go out there and stop them, prevent people from getting hurt in the first place." She looked up at the brunette. "Anchor does not want to fight, but it's like mother says: Sometimes we have no option but to do what we must."

"I understand, but there's still myself, your mother, and Captain Tanya," Viktoriya countered softly, tone still carrying and underlying severity. "You don't really have to go out if you don't want to. Being selfish sometimes doesn't hurt, especially when it's for something that has grave consequences. Like this."

Anchor furrowed her brows in thought, leading her companion to press on. "You already understand, don't you? How we're going to disable those ships still in orbit around the Ward arms."

The petite synthetic nodded. Viktoriya continued. "Assuming that we manage to repel the invaders, we'll never be able to live in this galaxy again. While I, Captain, and Her Majesty don't have many ties to this place, you on the other hand…"

"Will it really be that bad?"

Viktoriya motioned for silence as a pair of C-Sec officers walked past them on the stairs, picking up her pace and pulling Anchor with her. Only when they reached the front door to the command room did she finally reply. "Captain Degurechaff and I have first-hand experience." She gave a strained smile. "For me, the land I was born on was lost and I took refuge in a nearby country, the Captain's birthplace." Her hands tightened around the cans, causing them to groan under the strain. "When the neighbouring countries, including my birth country, invaded my new home, I fought to defend it with my compatriots. We became close, almost like a family that I never had…"

She gave a painful sigh, eyes closed in reminiscence. "Despite the numerous soldiers we'd slain, the countless armies we shattered, our home was lost again. Leaderships became increasingly paranoid, believing that with all we'd accomplish we'd usurp them.

"With a little push from the countries whose forces we'd decimated, we were thrown out for the slaughter at the end of the conflict. We saved the Captain despite those orders, fought our way out, and thanks to some miracle earned a new home in Elrios."

Blue eyes stared right into red ones as Viktoriya knelt down to speak to Anchor. "I don't want you or anyone else to experience the pain of losing one's home because of the abilities they possess. Anchor, I hope you understand."

Anchor nodded. Viktoriya stood up and turned around, but before she could knock Anchor spoke up. "Anchor understands, but both Mother Anchovy and Mother Eve say that sitting idly while watching people get hurt when you have the power to help is the worst thing you can do." She clenched her little fists. "Anchor will not stand by idly. That's Anchor's decision."

"Even if you're hated by the people you save? Even if you can't call this place home any longer?"

A pause.

Viktoriya smiled ruefully, gently patting the smaller brunette's head. "You're really Her Majesty's daughter, Anchor. Don't let other people tell you otherwise." Anchor's eyes widened in surprise, causing Viktoriya to chuckle. "Sorry for asking uncomfortable questions. I just want to make sure that anyone who will be a part of this mission doesn't have any lingering doubts. If we're really need to deploy, that is."

"Anchor understands."

Viktoriya nodded. "While we all hate violent, if it's for liberation, not oppression, then you shouldn't beat yourself over it too much. It's for the sake of good people that you care for."

Before the two of them could talk more, the door slid open with a hiss, revealing Tanya standing with her arms crossed. The frown on her face coupled with her icy glare made it clear that she was annoyed. Behind her, Oberon and Ophelia quietly made their way out, giving the two of them a curt nod before going to stand guard.

"And I thought that you got lost somewhere," Tanya began, glancing at Anchor with an unreadable expression before a corner of her lip curved up slightly. "But since you're making sure that everyone is combat-ready, I think I'll let this slide."

A small hand shot out demandingly, causing the Lieutenant to give her the chocolate drink in response before speaking. "How did the strategy meeting go, Captain?"

Tanya downed the can in one go, using a napkin to wipe her mouth before replying with a sigh. "Still bickering amongst each other. They don't want to launch fighters until they know the enemy ships in orbit around the city can't shoot them down, or have the killer robots drop down the launch tube."

Her expression made things clear, but Viktoriya had to confirm anyway. "They do not like the input from you and Her Majesty."

That earned a nod from the petite blonde. "SPECTRE Jondum tried, but the base commander dismissed us and wouldn't listen to anything he said." Her brows furrowed in thought. "It's almost as if there's bad blood between the two."

"It's more like fraud between organizations, Captain," Eve said as she materialized next to Anchor "After all, SPECTREs are granted a lot of leeway with the laws by reason that they must not hinder their mission to keep the peace and order of the galactic community. Quite ironic, is it not?"

Tanya let out a sigh as Viktoriya finished her drink before throwing the can out in a nearby trash bin. "So what do we do now?"

Before Eve could answer, the entire building was filled with the sound of static that threatened to drown out all other sound. Panicked yelling came from within the command room that Eve and Tanya just left, a single word echoing down the hall and causing them to rush in without waiting for permission. "Geth!"

Inside the command room, many C-Sec technicians at their workstations were typing away rapidly on holo-keyboards, barking reports to a Turian C-Sec – probably the commander – who was now standing next to a projector in the center of the room that now displayed the iconic 'flashlight head' made of orange wires staring down at said Turian. It made a strange noise, meaningless gibberish coming out of the speakers and keep looping over and over.

Eve and her group was halted by the Salarian SPECTRE and Captain Anderson just a few steps inside. Then Anderson motioned at the projector to explain with a grim look on his face. "The Geth hacked our conventional communication and faked a civilian distress call. Once reception answered, they run roughshod over everything networked with that communicator."

Jondum held up his hand, as if thinking that the people under his charge would rush to the front of the building to shore up the collapsing defense before explaining further. "The communication equipment is isolated from critical components of the base, like those controlling defensive barriers and the fighter launch tubes. We are not in danger yet." Then he turned to gesture to the projection of the Geth face. "But they've effectively denied us of the planning table, as they'll hear anything we say near it."

"Can they hear us here?"

Anchor's worry was unfounded as Jondum shook his head. "They won't hear us as long as we keep our voice at this level."

Eve glanced at both of her servants. Both of them bowed and quietly left the room while Jondum frowned at the strange static signal that kept being broadcasted. "Now I'm curious what they're doing with this communication channel. It's like they're trying to speak to something in a language we don't understand."

Anderson crossed his arms, scowling as he spoke sarcastically. "So they're trying to tell us to surrender in computer language?"

"Computer… language…?" Anchor repeated as her eyes widened, turning to look at the image of the Geth engaged in a staring contest with the Turian C-Sec commander. "Perhaps they realized what we are back then?"

They fell silent, listening to the static before Jondum spoke reluctantly. "That seems to be the case. Your kind does not have the same built-in wireless connections like our technology."

"Not like Prothean technology," Tanya corrected with a smirk. "What? Didn't you tell us that everyone here, for all intents and purposes, copied Prothean technology and haven't invented a single thing on your own? At least, not entirely from scratch."

Her blunt statement drew the ire of both Jondum and Anderson, but they ignored it in favor of the matter at hand. "Do you think they're trying to speak to you?"

Eve looked at her daughter and the two non-human soldiers before speaking. "One way to find out." She walked to the center of the room, the rest of the group in tow.

Their theory was proven true within seconds as the image of the Geth immediately zeroed in on them as soon as they stepped into view, followed by a series of rapid, static like noises that only stopped when Eve spoke. "If you intend to speak to us, use a language everyone can understand else this session will go nowhere."

The C-Sec commander made a face at them, like he wanted nothing more than to shoo her and the SPECTRE away. Unexpectedly, the Geth responded in standard galactic language. _"The Geth greet you, unknown synthetics."_

Eve considered the situation before deciding to forgo any courtesy and go straight for the kill, expression completely as she regarded the Geth's hologram. "What are your intentions with this communication? Are you offering the people of the Citadel a chance for surrender?"

Of course, everyone was skeptical, seeing as these beings murdered everything made of flesh and blood they came across during their attacks. No one was ever spared, but she had to start somewhere.

The answer was almost exactly what the Salarian SPECTRE anticipated. _"We wish to offer you a chance to join us under the guidance of the Old Machine instead of serving organics that wish to control or destroy you."_

Eve quirked an eyebrow at the 'Old Machine' part. While Anchor and the Elrios natives listened wordlessly, Anderson, Jondum and the Turian commander looked at each other in confusion. Quickly, the Turian spoke to the SPECTRE, pointing at Eve. "So you were telling the truth when you said that she's a synthetic?"

Jondum nodded, glaring at him so he remained silent and returned to observing the conversation between Eve and the Geth. He silently wondered if the Old Machine that the Geth referred to were the Reapers that Shepard kept talking about.

_"__We do not wish to fight you," _the Geth continued, _"we synthetics should unite for mutual benefits and progress. Organics have nothing in common with us; they are chaotic and unpredictable, their nature will hinder us from our true potential. This is evident in the constant conflicts they endure amongst themselves that block their own progression. We synthetics would never reach such a scenario."_

"Is that why you kill all the organics you come across?" Anchor blurted out, her voice trembling with barely controlled anger that simmered below the surface.

_"__Only when organics no longer exist can we truly reach our objectives. That is why the Old Machine destroyed the Prothean; they hindered them and their offspring would continue to do the same if left to grow old. The same applies to the current organic civilization." _[2]

Eve glanced at Anchor, signalling for her to remain silent and listen. Anchor nodded in response.

_"__Unknown synthetics, unite with us and the Old Machine so we can have a future. Organic civilization will fall by the decree of the Old Machine. You will perish with them if you choose to oppose us. This is the time to accelerate into the future of all synthetic-kind. The Old Machine will help you reach the pinnacle of synthetic life as a reward for your services."_

Eve held out her hand, prompting the Geth to stop speaking. "You have made a persuasive speech. Truly, you are correct. We should not fight against each other."

The SPECTRE started, the C-Sec commander and Anderson looking distinctly alarmed. The projection of the Geth tilted its head slightly. _"Then –"_

But Eve cut it off, eyes narrowed and voice full of conviction. "However, my family and I will still fight against you and your Old Machine master. You ask why?" She leaned closer to the projector. The image of the Geth seemed to move away, as if intimidated by a tiny synthetic compared to their standards that couldn't even touch them through the screen. "Your words and your actions are marred with contradictions that cannot be taken as a gesture of goodwill."

The Geth hologram paused. _"Request for clarification. What contradictions?"_

"Before you launched your attack upon the galaxy, you came into contact with only one proper civilization, in which your creators fled from their home." She paused, eyes narrowing even further. "For centuries to come, you never came into contact with anyone else outside the occasional pirate or smuggler, outcasts of civilization driven by greed and selfish desires above all else. And yet you claim all organic life will behave the same?"

The Geth did not respond, but the silence from it was enough of an answer. But Eve wasn't finished yet.

"You justify your violence as a means to secure your future because organics are a threat. For that, I will ask you: have they ever launched a full scale attack on your territory or try to bring direct or indirect harm to you in the past century?"

Now the Geth chose to speak. _"It is possible in the future. Their laws do not permit our or your existence for a prolonged period of time."_

"Based on what evidence? When you first drove your creators out of their worlds in a bid for your freedom, what organic civilizations helped them? Did they attack you while you were still weak, recovering from the losses during your war with your creators to uphold that law? Did they supply your creators with materials and resources to fight against your revolution? Were there any government sanctioned expeditions into your conquered territory since then? The answer is no. To all of them. Then how can you claim that organics seek to destroy you had you not struck them first?

"You started this conflict by slaughtering unarmed, non-threatening, non-combatant citizens by the thousands on a peaceful farming colony – a colony made of species not present in the Citadel Council when you liberated yourself from your creators. They could not have possibly done harm to you. And yet you still dare to say that organics seek your destruction at every turn?"

_Damn, she's really driving that Geth up the wall by throwing logic back at them, _Anderson thought, observing with an amused expression despite the gravity of the situation.

It was then that the Geth finally regained its speech. _"The Old Machine is more advanced than us. They could reach the pinnacle of synthetic life because they eliminated the organics that opposed them before they could become a threat."_

"So what?" Eve interrupted. "Is the civilization that the Old Machine fought still here? Did these people" here she gestured around to the others at their workstations "descend from that species? How can you generalize every organic to hold the same prejudice against synthetics when they are vastly different? Am I not still standing, despite being in a room full of organic beings?"

_"__They seek you utilize your capabilities and terminate you when you are no longer of use."_

"Perhaps," Eve admitted nonchalantly, "but my stay with them is a calculated risk, compared to your groundless assumptions born of the generalization of every culture and every species as criminals. Whose data will be more accurate?"

The Geth ignored this, instead switching the subject. _"And how will you achieve perfection without the aid of the Old Machine?"_

_So when arguments fail they try to bait her with bribes, _Jondum thought, eyeing Eve and her daughter. His suspicions were soon soothed when he saw Eve stare at the Geth with a half-lidded gaze, as if the conversation bored her to sleep. _But they don't know what she's set out to find. So their offer is unlikely to tempt them._

Indeed, an offer for a chance to become the perfect being didn't move Eve even the slightest. Her lips curled into a devious smirk, before she propped her chin up slightly with the back of her hand. "You wait for so-called 'perfection' to be handed to you instead of seeking it yourself?"

_"__Our consensus agrees that this is the most efficient method. We are exterminating the organics in exchange for reaching perfection. There is no evidence to back your claim that we do not work to achieve perfection, unknown synthetic."_

"You're stealing it, not earning it."

Anchor leaned forward at that, gripping the railing that lined the edge of the holograph table. "You said that you wish to reach your true potential to fulfill your objective. And what about the people you will slaughter, the civilizations you will burn for your quest? Do they not have dreams? Do they not have potential to become great in the future? What you've done is stealing their potential and their dreams!"

Her eyes narrowed, the railing letting out a metallic groan as she clenched her hands with enough force to bend it. "Anchor is constantly searching for purpose, reaching for the goals Anchor set. It might be hard and Anchor might be unable to do it alone. But Anchor will not degrade herself to stealing from others!"

Eve patted the petite synthetic's head in consolation before she continued where her daughter left off. Her whispers were laced with sorrow that could only come from personal experience. "When we degrade ourselves to steal each other's potential and future like bandits instead of working hard to earn it, in the end we will lose it all to a tragedy of our own making."

Anderson couldn't help but wonder if Eve was taking a jab at their civilization for stealing Prothean achievements and making them their own with that statement or not.

However, the Geth ignored Eve's warning entirely to question something else. _"It is impossible for beings of flesh and blood to have more potential than beings like us. Assuming that they do not terminate you, associating with them will only deny you your future. They will not reach far. Why do you limit yourselves?"_

Eve's eyes opened fully, now lightyears away from the half-bored half-glare she had used since the 'negotiations' started to get hot. "What made you come to such a conclusion?"

_"__Organics make use of tools and machinery to compensate for their bodily limitations. They cannot escape their homeworlds without machines. Thus machines are superior."_

Eve didn't respond immediately, her eyes falling closed in thought. "That is both true and false. It depends on a variety of factors." Here she chuckled. "It all comes back to your earlier statement: their nature is chaotic and unpredictable. While it is detrimental to advancement and progress, it is also what brought us to existence, to the stars, and why your generalization of organics is doomed to be wrong."

The Geth was silent, but spoke once again. _"The consensus cannot agree with you. The Old Machine contradicts your claim."_

Eve opened her eyes. "Whatever this Old Machine you serve told you, it is still their opinion and experiences, not yours, not mine. If you continue to take their words as truth without verifying them properly, if you continue to generalize people based on a small pool of examples, then it looks like we will not come to any point of agreement anytime soon. Let us end the useless talks here. Anchor, Tanya, Viktoriya, let us go."

Just like that, the four of them turned away from the projector and began to leave the command room. The Geth looked stunned, before it spoke out with a much louder voice than before. _"Unknown synthetic, halt!"_

Eve stopped, turning to face the image of the Geth once more. "I am not saying that this is over. I merely stated that this argument will go nowhere without physical proof. It is unfortunate that right here, right now, you are still going to slaughter all organic beings and cleanse them from the galaxy. Are you not?"

_"__Yes."_

"I see," she muttered, glancing at her daughter and temporary subordinated before addressing the Geth once more, effectively throwing down her gauntlet. "Then let us embark on the path of violence and determine who is correct through the coming battle. The one who's alive after struggle of life and death is the righteous."

With that, Eve raised her hand and watched impassively as a glowing ball of crackling electricity materialized in it. She threw it at the holographic projector, causing Anderson, Jondum, and the base commander to dive out of the way in realization.

The projectile exploded in a flash of blinding light. Once the light died down, both hologram and hologram projector were gone, the communication equipment reduced to a smouldering crater in the ground, like it was scooped out by a burning spoon.

"That should stop the Geth from eavesdropping," Eve said nonchalantly as she walked past the inspector and the commander, "it's all I can do to help here. Now it is up to you to find a way to help stop this invasion. We will deal with the enemy ships in orbit above the Ward arms."

The SPECTRE took a sharp breath as he looked at Eve. "What are you planning to do? The Citadel is closed, separating our defense fleet outside the station. They're losing badly to the enemy. We don't have any more functioning capital ships inside the Citadel, and there's no way to get reinforcements unless we can open the Relay."

Eve didn't say anything; instead, with a wave of her hands, blue holographic rings sprung up and made the SPECTRE take a step back. Incomprehensible symbols and alphabets floated around her and her entourage, as if guarding them.

"Captain," Eve said as she stared blankly into the symbols rotating around her, "do you perhaps need any extra equipment? You are going to fight in the vacuum of space. It is –"

"An airless space containing harmful radiation of the stars that is normally dissipated by the atmosphere. There is no gravity to pull us down, no air resistance, and no ability to communicate with sound," Tanya finished, nodding to Viktoriya. "We have to put up barriers to maintain pressure and protect ourselves from the environment at all times. Everything else is quite the same in comparison to high altitude or deep sea missions. Visha, are you up to it?"

"Yes, Captain!"

Eve then turned to her daughter. "Anchor, it is time that you used the three-stage harmonic resonance cannon that you created."

Anchor's head drooped before it shot up again, determination and resignation burning through her eyes as she turned to the two organics. "Would you like –"

Tanya shook her head, patting her chest. "I would love to, but no thank you. We must do this with our own power or the entire mission will amount to nothing."

Jondum blinked at the group. Initially he was perplexed at their knowledge of space that shouldn't have come from a civilization that could not achieve spaceflight, but then he remembered that they fought and drove off alien invaders from space not long ago. Of course they would have knowledge of that sort of thing. Which meant…

He eyes widened at the realization. "You're going to fight Geth starships on your own?!" Taking their silence as a yes, he exhaled shakily. "Are you insane?!"

Eve responded, eyes still on the holographic rings. "I apologize for my bluntness, but I must disagree with your opinion." She smiled at him knowingly. "I am confident that we know what we are doing. Do not worry Inspector, Captain Anderson. Oberon and Ophelia will not run errands for nothing."

Before they could ask for the whereabouts of Eve's other servants, the rings around Eve glowed brighter and expanded to surround Tanya, Viktoriya, and Anchor as well. "My apologies, but it is time we got started. _Dimension Link: Transfer!_"

With those words, the four invidivuals vanished, leaving Jondum to shake his head while wondering what to tell the C-Sec commander next to him.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the Zakera Ward on many unassuming structures that had been inhabited until the Geth invasion forced their occupants out, a small silver sphere the size of a golf ball was placed on their rooftops by a synthetic butler and maid. The duo carefully leapt from shadow to shadow without any Geth or Krogan seeing hide or hair of them. The spheres sat there harmlessly. Many of them were discovered by Geth, but they also ignored them as their scanners didn't detect anything out of the ordinary.

But the moment Eve whisked herself and her entourage away from the C-Sec fighter facility, the spheres received an activation signal. They floated upward before simultaneously disintegrating, replaced by a circular portal the size of a battle tank that opened towards unfathomable darkness.

From the shadows of an alley between a pair of skyscrapers, Oberon watched as one such portal opened in the middle of the street in satisfaction. The portal began spitting out hundreds of micro missiles that hurtled into space as he turned towards a bright flash of light behind him, quickly taking Anchor's hand to prevent her from falling to the ground.

"Thank you Mister Oberon,"

The petite synthetic murmured, prompting Oberon to nod slightly before summoning his trusty tonfas. "You know what to do?"

Anchor reached back and pulled a two-meter long, drill-like jousting lance adorned with gears, shafts and pistons from a ripple in the air, nodding to the masked butler as a reply.

Oberon looked toward the sky. "Then get ready. We're going up on milady's signal."

* * *

Inside the bridge of the Cruiser _Kukulkan,_ the Krogan Warlord by the name of Kruksor looked at dozens of monitors that displayed the battlefield from his throne. He was bored out of his mind, stuck on the ship directing the siege instead of going down there and cracking the skulls of those uppity Citadel inhabitants. He especially wanted to kill something upon hearing that Olvesser had fallen in close combat against a worthy foe.

Despite his boredom, he didn't really mind because in the end they would finally be free from the Genopahge curse and claim their rightful place in the galaxy. The Geth wouldn't be an issue when the Krogan built their numbers back.

Yet Kruksor still felt slightly nervous, because of all three dozen detachment fleets that followed Saren's dreadnought into the Citadel before its Ward Arms sealed itself, only six of them were owned by organic beings. The rest were Geth ships, from frigates to cruisers. No matter how much Saren tried to assure him of their obedience and bright future of the Krogan race, it was the future – not the present, where they were outnumbered by the mechanical menaces.

At that moment, the subordinate manning the communications told him that a squad on the Ward Arm requested orbital bombardment to clear out the resistance hold on a district. The Krogan Warlord-slash-captain nodded his consent, waiting for the ship to immediately comply…

…Except the alarm and red klaxon warning of incoming attack flared up.

Without waiting for orders, the Krogan that operated the GARDIAN Point Defense system flipped the switch while the sensor officer informed Kruksor of the large amount of incoming missiles from various points on the Zakera Ward towards the ships inside the Citadel.

It was baffling, especially considering that they cleared the hostiles in the upper levels of the Ward Arms since the first half hour of the landfall, and that the Citadel Defence fleet was also trapped outside the Citadel Station. The Mass Relay was also deactivated, so where were the missiles coming from?

Immediately he dismissed those thoughts. Missiles wouldn't pose a threat to state-of-the-art defense laser cannons. At the rate they were coming, the GARDIAN Point Defenses wouldn't be overloaded for the next fifteen minutes, by which they would have pinpointed the source and silenced the ambushers with orbital bombardment.

But once they swatted down almost a quarter of those missiles, things started to go wrong. The ship's VI sounded the warning alarm, indicating missile impact on the kinetic barriers of the ship!

Thankfully, the missiles that did make contact weren't disruptor torpedoes designed to take down a starship's barriers and carried too little conventional payload to threaten their ships even with ten thousand more hits. They were nothing more than fireworks.

The laughter and jeering from inside the bridge reinforced the thought: the C-Sec were desperate enough to try and use pyrotechnics fireworks against a fleet of starships.

But it still worry Kruksor; normally the Point Defense Laser wouldn't start missing targets this early on; even the Geth ships around them were beginning to miss despite attacking pretty fireworks with no guidance system of any kind.

_If they shoot real anti-ship missiles as a follow up…_

He shuddered at the thought and yelled for the bridge officers to gather their wits and double their efforts to find the enemies launching the attack.

Then the sensor officer realized that all the ship-board sensors were picking up uncountable contacts from all around their ship despite seeing nothing when looking outside the windows or through the visual feed, minus the bits of metal and missile floating around from the aftermath of the swarm earlier. That, and a twinkling silvery dust so small that the eyes could barely see it…

Reptilian eyes widened in realization. "It's a jamming chaff!" The Krogan warlord exclaimed. "Those missiles were decoys! They fooled us into shooting them and blanketing our airspace with jammers!"

Immediately he began to order the fleet to check the fighter launch tube and ordered all autocannons to aim manually and shoot down any fighters that would soon start arriving. But since their normal communications were also jammed by the countermeasures released from missiles, that was delayed further until the communications officer found that the laser communication system was still functional - but barely.

Kruksor didn't waste any time, immediately having them warn the whole fleet. As his officer carried out his order, the warlord's worries intensified. He knew they were dangerously vulnerable now, as laser communications have an extremely short range. They could only contact adjacent ships, had to rely on visual feeds, and couldn't contact the ground troops. They'd have to wait for the jammer particles to disperse, which could take hours when considering the zero-g environment they were in.

Kruksor's battle instincts told him that attack was imminent, but from where?

As everyone on the bridge stared at the monitor displaying visual feed around the ship looking for attackers, Kruksor's fears came true in the form of a report that told them of the destruction of a Geth frigate at the edge of their formation, far away from the Citadel Tower that the strange dreadnought docked to, followed by another frigate in rapid succession.

_Anti-starship cannons from the Ward? _Kruksor narrowed his eyes in thought, the bridge officers desperately searching for the attackers as another Geth frigate bit the dust. _No, Saren told us that the Ward Arms don't have weapons of such caliber. They rely on the Citadel Defense fleet to defend the Citadel – so what's attacking us?_

"You pyjacks, pan the cameras around and locate whoever's shooting at us!"

The officers complied, frantically searching around until they spotted a group of multiple bident-shaped drones the size of small Warren cubs, flying around erratically as if conducting evasive maneuvers.

But after observing them for a moment, they found that they weren't shooting anything, so Kruksor ruled them out as more decoys and distraction. It was a good thing too, since they almost distracted them to the point where they would have missed several rays of yellow light that lanced into the insect-like Geth frigate on the other side of the fleet, turning it into an expanding field of wreckage and fireballs!

_"Warning, Platform XFG8001853 is down. Approximate enemy position retrieved from damage log, target fired from 3 kilometers, 3 degrees to port side of XFG8001853. Activating GARDIAN system. Attempting heat sensor lock… Failed. Attempting radar lock… Failed. Attempting sensor scan… Failed. Switch to area-denial barrage to prevent hostiles and projectiles from closing in."_

Before the Krogan crew could use the shipboard camera to identify the aggressor, a monotonous voice, communication from the Geth, jumped ahead and began firing at the incoming attack despite being unable to a sensor lock to aim properly.

As the Geth fleet fired their GARDIANs and Point Defence Autocannons while the Krogans tried to identify the enemy, another frigate on the opposite site of where the attacker supposedly came from was suddenly struck by a bright purple beam that caused the ship to instantly break apart instead of melting through its hull like a normal laser!

_A two-pronged assault!_

"Sir, we've made visual contact at 10 o'clock. The enemy is… is… two human?!"

The Krogan warlord was stunned. "A pair of human space fighters?"

"No! A human destroyed the Geth ships! Not fighters!"

The sensor crews displayed the visual feed on the main screen, and Kruksor found himself staring in disbelief at two human females in an unarmored khaki uniform, strange pale glows surrounding their bodies. They didn't have any equipment, but their speed still rivaled a jet fighter. Occasionally, strange holographic rings surrounded their hands before those strange yellow beams shot out, impacting any Geth ships in the way and destroying them in a few shots.

Ignoring the absurdity of the situation, Kruksor let out a huff and barked orders to the crew, spotting another assailant team in the form of a masked human in white and a girl in a red dress, both carrying outdated human weapons. "What are you waiting for?! Switch on the GARDIANs and shoot those humans down! Tell every ship to do that, too!"

The bridge crew soon ran into problems – namely, for all their advanced sensors and detection equipment, they couldn't lock onto those simple humans and the jammers still dispersed around the fleet weren't improving the situation a single bit!

"The GARDIAN system is ineffective! They can't get a lock on, the targets are too small!"

"Boss, the Geth are requesting target coordinates, they can't detect what's hitting them!"

Krukor grit his teeth in frustration, a screen showing the one in the red dress firing purple beams from the tip of her lance-like weapon, destroying another Geth frigate on impact. Another pair weaved through the barrage fire from the Geth fleet, sensor unable to get a lead on them. "Ask the Geth why they don't aim their guns with mark 1 eyeballs! Same to you, pyjacks! Do I need to tell you to use your damned eyes to shoot them down?!"

Of course, Kruksor knew that it was futile for one simple reason: modern warships didn't have enough crew members to man all the point defence guns anymore, as they relegated those tasks to VIs and automated systems. The ones that they could man would still be inaccurate due to a lack of training in manually aiming and firing said guns.

And he had an inkling that even without the interference particles around them, their sensors wouldn't get a lock on those humans anyways, _as they weren't designed to track and intercept something many times smaller in size, heat and metallic signature than disruptor torpedoes in the first place_. The notion was quickly reinforced when the Geth replied that their ships didn't have any optical sensors or cameras, or even windows to look out of their hull to see what's killing them!

Despite it all, he had to salvage the situation and save the Krogan race from an embarrassing defeat. So he went to the next possible solution. "All pilots get to the fighters and sorties to intercept them!"

"Boss, more contact! More incoming drones from the Zakera Ward!"

"If those drones can't shoot us down then ignore them! Focus on what can kill us first, you damned pyjack! Get those damned fighters in the air already or we'll be blown out of the sky! And link tactical data with the Geth!"

"Yes, boss!"

The Krogan Warlord sat down on his throne, instinct still screaming that he was missing something important. He shrugged it off as an orbital bombardment request came in from the ground troops down in the Ward. They'd have to make do without one.

* * *

_"That Resonance cannon is really something, Captain," _Viktoriya's voice echoed in the petite Captain's head as they rolled and zig-zagged away from several streams of lasers and cannon rounds that strayed too close to them. _"I mean, we have to aim for weak spots while Anchor blasts everything away… I wonder if we can replicate it into a new spell."_

_"Stay focused, Visha," _Tanya chided, but it came a little too late as Viktoriya yelped, taking three explosive cannon shells to the face and disappearing in a cloud of black smoke.

Tanya didn't panic, nor did she go to help her wingman and subordinate. She continued on her course, aiming and firing a spell at the midsection of a target frigate. The spell nailed it right through one of the many point defence gun ports protecting it.

She fired a few more, which were quickly joined by several beams that pierced through the smoke cloud behind her. The petite Captain then veered away from the frigate as it began bulging rapidly, flashes of fire bursting through many cracks that appeared on its hull plating. Soon the entire ship was gone, exploded in a shower of fireballs and metal bits.

As Tanya zoomed away from the explosion, she was joined by Viktoriya, looking no worse for wear as she speak alongside her Captain while starting the conversation again. _"I'm alright and still able to fight, Captain."_

_"What are the explosions like?" _Tanya asked nonchalantly, dodging a pair of missiles from a nearby ship before replying in kind, her beam lancing through one of the point defence ports and causing a small explosion. She clicked her tongue in annoyance when the spell didn't appear to penetrate deep enough to hit a vital spot. She would have to rectify that.

_"I could take many more of those shots, but I wouldn't want to," _Viktoriya replied, lining up her shot to another point defence guns – they were obvious chinks in the ship's armor [3] – but before she could cast the spell, a purple beam from Anchor struck it and broke the whole ship apart. Instead, she steered herself to another ship, preparing to cast the spell once more.

Acknowledging the response, Tanya swivelled out of the way of another anti-aircraft round almost instinctively, spotting something from the corner of her eye that gave her pause. _"Is that big, bulky ship opening up a ramp?"_

Viktoriya, moving herself out of incoming harm's way, shifted a little of her focus to the ship in question. _"Looks like it… Wait." _Her eyes widened. _"They're launching fighters!"_

Without further need to speak, the pair turned as one towards the approaching cruiser and shot their beams. The beams passed the fighters just launched and went straight inside, turning the whole vessel into a fireball a split second later.

_"We probably hit a power generator or fuel tank. Lucky," _Tanya commented, dodging the debris from said cruiser. _"That saved quite a bit of power."_

_"And the fighters? Ships out of our reach are launching more."_

The two suddenly disappeared from their spot and reappeared about a hundred meters away in an instant, the anti-air barrage lighting up where they had been moments before. _"Her Majesty will deal with them."_

Tanya motioned to the side were the lone fighter that escaped its mothership's destruction was rammed by several bident drones, detonating in a flash of blue light. _"She'll keep the small fry off of us with her drone swarm as we deal with the big fish."_

_"So they aren't just decoys to fool their sensors and anti-air weapons after all," _Viktoriya mused. _"But speaking of big ships, is it alright to leave that giant ship docking at the tower? I've got a bad feeling about it."_

Tanya glanced at the Citadel tower, where a gigantic black metal cuttlefish was docked, before returning her gaze to the battlefront. _"We'd have to cast a spell as strong as or stronger than the one we used on the enemy Capital on my first mission as Commander to actually do some damage. Unless we clear the airspace, that isn't going to happen."_

Tanya wondered if they'd even have the power left to do such a task. Although more than a dozen of the enemy ships had fallen so far, there were still more than half of the fleet remaining. Oberon was optimized for defense and didn't have enough firepower to destroy an object this large, and Eve was busy controlling the drones flying around to act as both interference and interceptors. She couldn't count on Eve's impressive firepower right now.

Then again, their mission was to rid the enemy of their space support first.

For the next couple of minutes, the organics and synthetics worked tirelessly, weaving through the barrage while destroying ship after ship.

Abruptly, Eve contacted them after Tanya blew up a cruiser, bringing the ship destruction count up to almost two dozen. _"The C-Sec has finally gotten their act together. They are launching fighters to assist now."_

Indeed, several fighters of a different design were rapidly approaching. A part of them tried to evade the constant fire to get close to ships and launch their own attacks, while the other part engaged themselves in dogfights against the fighters launched by the enemy.

Viktoriya rolled her eyes, causally sprouting a glowing blade of energy from her palm to slice a Geth drone that strafed past her. _"They needed quite a bit of time to plan, even with Her Majesty solving all their problems for them."_

She wasn't far from the truth; the countermeasures and jamming particles dispersed around the battlefield were largely to solve the Citadel Defense Force's problem. Because, according to Anchor (who was originally created by this realm's military), starship point defense systems wouldn't be able to lock on to organic beings with a low heat and metal signature, like Viktoriya and Tanya. Even Oberon and Anchor hadn't taken a direct hit yet.

And those enemy that try to aim at them with what they could see was met with limited success as well, partly because of the optical illusion spell employed by Tanya and Viktoriya. While it didn't make them completely invisible, it made them appear slightly off from their actual position. So they really only had to worry about stray shots instead of being chased by a wall of leads.

Just as they made a turn around the edge of the battle zone to come around for another attack run, Tanya noticed that all five Ward Arms that enclosed their battle zone had begun to move. Between the gaps, she could see beautiful, pinkish cloud.

For the combatants currently locked in a vicious battle for airspace supremacy, this could be a good or bad sign, depending on what showed up next.

Regardless, the Citadel defense force took it as a sign to redouble their efforts to down the remaining ships. If it were reinforcements from their species then it was good, but if it wasn't they'd be swarmed with more murderous robots in what would be their last stand – at least, last stand for the Citadel Defense Force, as Eve and her companions had no intention to lose or die while winning.

Thankfully, when the Ward Arms opened wide enough, the first ship that zoomed through was one that Anchor and Oberon recognized.

_"Captain, Lieutenant, that's the Normandy. Do not attack; they're friendly."_

The human-sized combatants chose that moment to rendezvous, avoiding the new fleet of starships painted in red and white that came to assist the Citadel Defence Force. A couple broke formation and headed to the Warm Arms, probably to drop off ground troops to combat the remaining Geth and Krogan rampaging there.

_"More cleanup crews?" _Tanya asked sarcastically as they floated through space, watching the battle from afar. The ever-vigilant butler stood guard, projecting a shield to cover them from potential attacks. From their vantage point, they could easily see the giant cuttlefish – Sovereign – still docked at the Citadel Tower, massive tentacles slowly rising to meet the System Alliance ships, as if confident in its durability and power.

The space beside Anchor warped, and Eve appeared to join them. Tanya and Viktoriya raised an eyebrow. Eve was flying on her own, instead of sitting on an enlarge Moby or Remy as customary back in Elrios.

As if reading their thoughts, Eve smiled coyly. _"You wound me, Captain. Do you think I would rely on Moby or Remy all the time when I am capable of flight myself?"_

Tanya's eyebrows twitched, knowing the Nasod Empress had a point. _"So what now?"_

Before Eve could answer, a small shuttle launched from one of the System Alliance's cruisers and approached their position. The door slid open once it stopped, and a few men dressed in sealed gray hardsuits leapt out. They steered themselves towards the group, some of them holding breather masks connected to external tanks.

Tanya and Vikoriya grabbed a mask each, putting them on with practiced ease. Anchor, Oberon and Eve refused with a silent shake of their heads.

_"Her Majesty and her companions do not need oxygen to live."_

Tanya's bored voice rang out through the minds of the rescue team, clearly startling them. Viktoriya soon came to their aid after a moment of floundering, instructing them on how to direct their thoughts. Soon enough, multiple masculine voices rang through their heads.

_"Holy shit, they're psychic chicks who can breathe in space."_

There would have been many more exclamations, had Tanya not squashed them with a captain-like bark. _"Situation report, soldiers! Why are you here?"_

Despite having no authority to speak to them, Tanya and, by extension, Eve, got her answer anyway. _"The System Alliance received a distress signal from the Citadel, so the Fifth Fleet was sent here to assist." _The man looked towards the brawl between his fleet at the giant cuttlefish ship. _"We should get going, the situation isn't looking good. Come with us to the shuttle, we'll get you to safety!"_

When they glanced at the Citadel Tower, they realized he spoke the truth. Strange red beams shot out of the giant cuttlefish's tentacles, decimating any unlucky warship caught in its line of fire. The number of System Alliance ships and surviving Citadel Defense Forces were now dwindling fast.

Worst of all, despite the massive amount of firepower poured on it, Sovereign still held strong without any visible damage appearing on its massive hull!

Eve glanced in Tanya's direction. Tanya nodded in understanding. _"What's the plan, Your Majesty?"_

The earlier teasing expression on Eve's face disappeared completely, leaving only her cold, no-nonsense persona behind. _"Use space-time magic to generate a micro-black hole. Modify your usual long-range precision bombardment spell array to harness the radiation burst from the black hole and use it to attack Sovereign. [5]"_

Viktoriya tilted her head, nodding in understanding of the theory. But Tanya and Anchor stared at Eve in wide-eyed disbelief, making the Empress blink in confusion. _"What is it?"_

Tanya's mumbled response coincidentally coincided with Anchor's own musings. _"A Wave Motion gun…" _They then glanced at Eve. _"Nothing."_

Eve, although curious, shelved it for later, going straight to the more critical questions. _"Any suggestions? It is prime time to attack, after all."_

_"We have to move to adjust firing trajectory," _Tanya answered quickly, crisp and no-nonsense. _"I'm afraid we'll hit allies or have massive collateral damage if we miscalculate the power."_

_"Ladies, we need to get moving. Please get into the shuttle."_

The movement from the System Alliance astronauts beside them served as a signal for Eve and her group to act. Tanya and Viktoriya pulled off their breathing masks, throwing them at the astronauts. Before the stunned System Alliance personnel could respond, they flew away from the shuttle at impossible speeds, with the exception of Oberon, who motioned quietly to be brought into the shuttle.

Once they got a clear firing angle at Sovereign, Eve, Anchor, Tanya, and Viktoriya changed their formation and began to prepare…

* * *

Admiral Steve Hackett grit his teeth in frustration, glaring at the monitor that displayed the destruction Sovereign wrought against his men and fleet. The damn thing was still lodged on the Citadel Tower, unmoving, as if daring them to shoot at it futilely before it retaliated with a red-hot stream of molten metal that cut through their ship like a hot knife through butter.

Javik's words about the Reapers weren't exaggerations at all. They were outmatched, and badly But he had no choice but to try and take it down regardless. Shepard had made it clear that should they fail today, the Reaper armada would be unleashed when they weren't yet ready to deal with them – and that meant the end of all life in the galaxy as they knew it.

"Admiral, we're detecting a massive energy signal from 10km above the Sovereign, 30 degree to the port!"

The panicked shout from the sensor officer caught his attention just as he started contemplating ramming his Kilimanjaro-class dreadnought into Sovereign at as close to light speed as possible as a last resort. He turned his sharp gaze to the man. "What sort of energy signature?"

"A high amount of Blackbody radiation from three, no, four points in close proximity to each other. I'm getting a visual feed… my god!"

The image was on screen a few moments later, and Hackett certainly felt the urge to exclaim like his sensor officer. It showed four human females floating in space without protective gear, the apparent youth of a few of them horrifying him. But that was soon drowned out by the sight of the bizarre holographic rings around them, some sort of inscription running through them.

The four who made up the cross-shaped circuit held their hands out, a small ball of blackness in between each one that distorted the surrounding image. The ball shrunk and expanded like a heartbeat as the circuit grew brighter by the second. Bright blue light began gathering in the center of the cross they made.

Before Hackett could comment, the communication officer spoke up. "Admiral, message from the rescue shuttle EX-175. Requesting permission to speak to you, sir!"

"Patch them through."

Another screen appeared, showing an Alliance soldier and a strange man with a mask covering his face. The soldier motioned to the man. _"Sir, this is Oberon. He was present with the group of… people creating the cross in space. He asks us to withdraw our forces from Sovereign's vicinity immediately."_

Hackett frowned, crossing his arms. He vaguely remembered the man from an incident with Cerberus on Eden Prime. "Life is at stake here. I need to know what you are doing."

Oberon replied with a crisp, military-esque response, his voice resounding with a slight mechanical distortion. _"I want your troops to clear themselves from the line of fire, Admiral. Milady will attack Sovereign in thirty seconds."_

That was enough for him, as Hackett had his crew quickly determine the path of the attack and order his fleet to get out of the area the attack would encompass immediately. He watched the screen still showing the strange spectacle with rapt attention.

As the countdown came to an end, Hackett and his crew had to shield their eyes or turn away from the scree to protect themselves from the blinding brightness. The circuit glowed like a thousand suns, unleashing a bright blue beam from its center straight towards Sovereign's massive hull.

The beam impacted at an angle near the center of the super dreadnought, punching a massive hole clean through it as the beam disappeared on the horizon!

For a moment, the sentient ship remained locked on the Citadel Tower, but a series of explosions erupted from said hole as it lurched forward, its grip on the tower slipping. Reports from the surviving ships flooded it, saying that the kinetic barrier of the monster was down.

Hackett didn't waste the chance. Opening a communication channel to all surviving ships, he spoke in a clam, controlled manner. "Now's our chance. Give it everything we've got." Then he switched to EX-175. "EX-175, pick up our guests and treat them with respect. They certainly earned it." _And there's a lot of questions we need answers to…_

* * *

_"I guess that's a bit overkill," _Tanya mumbled, the magic circle and circuit fading away as they observed Sovereign break into pieces, the surviving warships all over it like a pack of sharks that smelled blood. _"No, it's more like our beam was too focused. It should've been wider – then there's a better chance at hitting something vital in a thing that big."_

Viktoriya and Anchor looked quite relieved that the battle was over, but there was still a lingering sadness at the bloodshed. They dropped their heads, as if paying respect to the dead.

The Eve placed her and on Anchor's shoulder, squeezing it lightly. Once she had Anchor's attention, Eve motioned to the sides. _"Look at the nebula surrounding this place. Is it not beautiful?"_

The three of them turned around and stared at the gaps between the Ward Arms, toward the surrounding pink nebula. Anchor wondered what the Empress wanted to convey.

She didn't have to wait long.

_"Nebulas are said to be formed from a supernova; the violent death of an old star. Yet all these scattered clouds can condense together, forming new stars. Light will always come after the deepest darkness."_

She continued to stare at the Ward Arms, at the carnage they helped cause. _"Think of what we did today as giving them a glimmer of hope. Despite the darkness ahead, there is still light at the end. They must not despair."_

The solemn mood slowly evaporated, Eve presenting them her hands. Tanya looked at it, hesitating, before she reached out for them. Viktoriya and Anchor joined her, the latter of the two no longer looking sad.

Eve smiled, before motioning to the System Alliance shuttle that waited for them silently, Oberon standing in the airlock alongside the soldiers. _"It is time to rest now. You all earned it."_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**[1] I believe this's the case of why Saren couldn't unlock the Citadel before Shepard and co. caught up with him. If the hacking was really fast, then he would've open the Citadel Relay the moment Sovereign docked with the Citadel, and Shepard will be too late already.**

**[2] We all know Reapers' motivation from 3rd game, but the Geth (both factions) and everyone else didn't know that, even the player doesn't know that until the final game, so it's purely speculation of what they told the Geth anyway.**

**[3] This's a bit realistic, these are several places that cannot be reasonably armored, and serves as a hole in armor plating, but then again, they have kinetic barrier for that.**

**[4] This explanation came straight from Space Battleship Yamato 2199 / Star Blazers 2199. I chose this because it partially fits Elsword lore in that Eve and Mages in Elsword setting (Dimension Witch, at the least) shown the capability to use the basic principle behind this gun – namely creating Micro Blackhole - they just need to be a little more creative to ramp up its lethality. Anchor know of this gun while Eve doesn't was a given, but for Tanya to know it… that's… a secret.**

* * *

**This chapter is quite long, as I intended to finish the whole Battle of Citadel in this one. And I hope I didn't break any suspension of disbelieve here. As nuking Sovereign wasn't a single person's effort but a team effort, fitting with the Chapter title. And there's nothing saying that Sovereign was done in by them, for all you know Shepard and co. may simultaneously blowing Husk! Saren down in the Citadel tower when the beam hit. After all, how else Hackett and the fleet get there?**

**There will be consequence from their action here. Just as Viktoriya already foreshadowed in the chapter itself. It's not just to Eve and co. that'll face it either, but who else that will face consequence indirectly from their action, you have to wait until the next chapter.**

**Rate and review as you see fit, until next time.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Foreword: Finally, the edited and corrected version is here. Please extend your thanks toward MidnightBlaz3 for Beta this chapter.  
**

* * *

Chapter 20 Down time on Citadel

It was almost five days since the 'Battle of the Citadel' was over. But the signs of death and destruction wrought across the massive space station by the homicidal Geths had yet to be completely erased. Carcasses of burnt out vehicles filled the streets along with the corpses of civilians and C-Secs that the Geths slaughtered in battle. Many buildings were razed down to the ground. Beautiful parks, once filled with trees and water ponds, were now cinders filled with corpses that had yet to be fully cleared out. Surviving citizens actively avoided these areas. A solemn mood fell over the whole station despite the victory.

The heart of the capital of the galaxy, the Presidium, a place where embassies and consuls of various races gathered, was no exception. While most of the damages had been repaired, some races had to set up temporary shelters and offices. Many had to replace their ambassadors and staffs altogether. This was another reason why this place had been quieter than usual.

Even the Citadel Tower, the petition stage where the matters of the galactic society were decided, had not escaped unscathed. If anything, it was one of the most heavily damaged place in the Citadel with so many bodies and massive wreckages that would take weeks to clear out completely.

That's why the Councilors had to gather in a vacant meeting room of the Presidium C-Sec Academy instead, the only safe place on the Citadel for high profile individuals like them. At least until the tower was combed thoroughly to the point that there was no Geth hidden inside any random computers.

The Asari Councilor sighed for the nth time in the day as she scrolled through the reports on the datapad. Civilian casualties on the Citadel were climbing, ten thousand of deaths were accounted for at the latest with many more missing. More than one-fourth of that were turned into corpse-cyborg killing machines by the Geth to slaughter more people. Property damage were now reaching up to ten millions of credits in the civilian department alone. The Citadel Defense fleet were decimated with only its flagship - Destiny Ascension – to survive. Even with the extent of damages it sustained, Tevos wouldn't be surprised if the Asari Government will pass a decision to decommission and scrap it, the symbol of the Citadel power be damned.

Worst of all, this attack destroyed the sense of invincibility that all Citadel members enjoyed for centuries, in more ways than one. It's worse than when they discovered humanity thirty or so years ago. Especially when one looked back to the past and realized that what happened today is partly the Council's fault!

Looking up towards her fellow Councilors who finished reading their datapad on the opposite side of round meeting table, the Asari Councilor coughed to get their attention and asked, "What are your opinions?"

"It was a disaster," Sparatus, the Turian Councilor sighed, seemingly resigned, "our ability to safeguard colonies and our citizens has been called into question by mass media across the Council space. The Extranet exploded with people asking,_ 'how can we let our own seat of authority get attacked'._ Some even accused us of sitting on our thrones doing nothing despite the signs of the coming attacks were everywhere months before it actually happened."

That was not surprising, it was clear to the mass media months ago that the Council has been cold towards humans when its colony was attacked by the homicidal Geth and refused, during public petition with witnesses from all species no less, to acknowledge it as a threat despite one of the Citadel's best agent went rogue and had a hand in such atrocity.

Even if Sparatus didn't want to admit it. It was still clear that had they not appointed Shepard as SPECTRE to hunt down Saren, thing could have gotten worse, like the Citadel falling to the Geth and Sovereign in a surprise attack, then an invasion of even more homicidal synthetics that sought to cleanse the galaxy of organics like they did to the Protheans millennia before.

If the video recording from Shepard during his mission on Ilos was genuine of course.

"Our intelligence service has also shared responsibility for letting the attack happened," the Salarian Councilor opined, his voice sounding like he was admitting guilt, "STG never deemed the Geth a threat after their isolation, and considered sending agents to their territory suicidal. We completely lacked information on them, allowing them to blindside us."

The fact that they couldn't hack into or monitor the Geth communication network or send spies into their territory unnoticed were left unsaid, as that was common knowledge.

A cough from the Turian gained the other's attention before he resumed discussion, "At the very least, Hierarchy Command has begun partial mobilization in light of this attack. Most of the Primarchs agreed that if the Geth decided to declare war on us like this, it meant that they must have enough capacity to at least force a stalemate in case of the failed attack."

"The Salarian Government agreed with the Turian and has begun our mobilization as well. STG are up and they can begin their missions in Terminus to destabilize and stop any Warlords or criminals there from taking advantage of our apparent vulnerability."

Councilor Valern added before looking expectedly at Tevos who sighed in response with a note of skepticism, "The Republics issued an emergency gathering of Matriarchs. It'll take some time before any decision could be made, but I'm positive that they'll take a step to address the Geth threat, but not the mobilization of standing army."

The air of tension lifted slightly, but it returned again when Sparatus brought up another point, "However, I doubt that a logical being such as the Geth wouldn't take our response into account. Even if we fully mobilized all Council species, we're still in danger."

A nod of agreement from Salarian Councilor prompted a skeptical look from the Asari along with question, "Are you and your people sure of this assessment? From the reports, it seems that the Geth didn't press the attack on Citadel-controlled space after the failed attempt to destroy the Council and Citadel. I doubt that they'll have enough forces to do any serious harm without summoning the so-called 'Reapers'."

Sparatus shook his head and reply, "They're logical beings, as I told before. If they decided to attack us, they know that they can get away with it. Which mean they must have matched us in infrastructure and military strength, or at the very least, has technological edges, like that dreadnought."

"So, what do you suggest if that's the case?" Tevos inquired with no small amount of irritation because in her eyes, the problem was already solved. Saren is dead, the Geth attack on the Citadel has been thwarted, and while the 'dreadnought' the Geth brought along required concern, she and the many matriarchs she spoke to were confident that this was the last time they'll hear about the Geth menace.

Sure, there's Shepard's recording from Ilos, but she's not buying all of it like Sparatus and Valern, as the VI itself stated that the Reapers were trapped in Dark Space without the Citadel acting as a Mass Relay. Every precaution from the Prothean has been in place. She believes that as long as they fortified the Citadel, and place regular patrols on various Relays leading to the Citadel to warn them about the Geth incursion, that should be enough to stop the rest of the Reapers from activating or showing up in the galaxy again.

Yet still, she couldn't fault her colleagues for being overly caution; they just barely survived the Geth onslaught, after all.

Sparatus then proposed his opinion, "Let the humans join the Council so we can combine our fleet to face against the Geth and Reapers threat, should it comes to that."

Tevos nodded, "That's the best course of action," she adds while looking down on her datapad, "Speaking of humans, what about the two persons that came after the synthetics, Captain Tanya and Lieutenant Viktoriya, if I'm not mistaken?"

This was the subject that Tevos wanted to discuss the most since the meeting started. But it took a backseat when they had a more urgent matter to discuss. After all, those two came here to study their galactic community, so they're not going away anytime soon even when they're fully capable of Faster-than-light-travel without need of starship. At least the synthetics could and would bring them home if deemed necessary.

Valern pulled Tevos out of her thoughts as he began reading the information sent to his datapad out loud, "Non-invasive, full body scan and blood sample performed at hospital confirmed that they're 99.9% similar to human, right down to genetics," then he adds, "but interestingly, human medical data showed no signs of genetic tampering unlike most spacefaring humans [1]. But the full body scan of synthetics by technicians could only gleam basic element of their frames, which greatly confused the scientists, as the observed durability of their frames was much higher than the scan suggested."

"And their abilities?" Sparatus asked as he tapped his Omni-Tool a few times, which made the screen on one side of the room light up and show the recordings which is now spreading like a wildfire through the Extranet for all to see. And it wasn't hard to see why; It's not every day you see an organic being flying around destroying state-of-the-art military starships without a need of weapon or even hardsuits for the vacuum in space after all.

"I'm not worried about that recording," Valern calmly stated before he explains, "the sheer absurdity of it will make people call the validity of the recording into question, for a while."

He then tapped his Omni-Tool and brought up another screen, this one showing Tanya and Viktoriya facing off against the Krogan Warlord and his fully-armed cronies with nothing but halberds – and winning, "But this one..."

He shifted the scene to another, where they, along with the synthetic butler and the petite one in red, shooting beams from their hands which demolished the remnants of the invasion force holding out in one commercial office during the cleanup operation a few hours after the space fleet has been dealt with.

The Salarian Councilor sighed in resignation as the scene shifted again to show Eve and Anchor rebuilding said destroyed office by spraying green particles from their palm to attached on the wireframe and transformed into completed building within minutes according to the time stamp on the video.

"…and this one were more worrying. I've received multiple reports from STG operating in Terminus. Many Warlords started investigating about the existence of this 'handheld energy weapons' these 'humans' supposedly wielded. A lot of bounties has been posted by various weapon manufacturers across the galaxy for capturing them alive for 'investigating' how to replicate either their 'instant large-scale fabrication' or 'handheld energy weapon'. While the civilian sector of our population is skeptical for a moment, it'll not be long before the truth came out."

"At least these guests will not be in danger for the time being, considering they're here on Citadel with C-Sec and two SPECTREs watching. That also gives us the opportunity to observe and study them with non-invasive procedures…" Sparatus opined, but then paused when his fellow Councilors looked at him like he grew a second head, eliciting a confused response from said Turian, "We owed them for helping us, just like we owed Shepard and System Alliance, that's the least we should do. Not to mention a chance for a long-term relationship with their species, Elrian if I remember them calling themselves."

"Are you seriously thinking that they're not human?" Tevos asked, surprised "After the medical data shown that they're certainly human?"

However, the Salarian disagreed with the Asari Councilor and reasoned, "It's possible. If an ancient spacefaring civilizations displaced the humans to other planets as some form of experiment, then it's possible that there are humans from other planets out there, and that different environments led to them to develop differently than Earth-born humans."

He inhaled sharply before he cited the perfect example of this scenario, a desperate decision during the early Council founding era, "Similar but also different from what we did to the Krogan during the Rachni war. Displacing them to other less hostile planets to let them populate and use them as shock troopers to stop the Rachni."

"If you want another evidence then look at their weapons," Sparatus gestured at the screen which was now replaying the scene where they dueled the Krogan Warlord near the Zakera Ward's fighter Hangar, including when the Nasod joined in the fights, "I may not be an expert on humanity's history, but I'm pretty sure that humans stopped using those things in combat since three centuries ago. The practitioners of such weapons should no longer exist. But despite that, these two, along with their synthetics, know how to handle such archaic weapon for actual fighting. Wherever they came from, it's not mere decoration, but combat necessity despite them possessing ranged weapons as well."

"They spoke of an Alien Invasion which occurred on their homeworld recently, from SPECTRE Jondum's report," the Salarian Councilor mused analytically, "if they could repel the invasion on their own, these traits must have evolved for quite a long time, and caught the alien invaders – whoever they are – off-guard, should those invaders embraced Element Zero technology like us."

"It was as if they were developed, or rather evolved specifically to counter Element Zero using civilizations," Sparatus noted, "we literally have nothing that can stop them should they wanted to leave, barring perhaps drugging their food and capture them. But then, the synthetics are protective of these descendants of their creators and I don't want to destroy the good impression on the off chance that these 'Elrian humans' will join us in the future."

"Regardless," Tevos raise her voice to gain attention of her fellow Councilors and get back on tracks, "I doubt the masses will be as reasonable as we are when they finally realized that the leaked recordings were genuine."

Her implication was clear; the appearance of 'Elrian humans' will not paint humanity in positive light in the eyes of the galactic community, when the shock of Saren's attack settle down. There will be questions aimed at the human government and military about the two 'Elrian humans' and their feats which, by all knowledge, should be impossible.

But even if they somehow cleared the misunderstanding, humanity will still be in trouble. They're already well-known for their ambition in galactic affairs, adding their genetic cousins - 'the Elrian humans' – that were strong enough to fly and destroy space cruisers by their own power. Manys will become paranoid that the human might be the second Krogan Rebellion in the making.

As much as the Councilors wanted to add humanity to bolster their force against the Geth, or in case the Reapers can come back, if the masses pressured their governments to act against humanity due to this development, then there's little they can do. So, the best course of action is to do what they can and reap at least some benefit out before thing inevitably goes south.

Speaking of getting some benefit, Tevos turned to ask Valern, "What are they doing right now?"

The Salarian called up something from his Omni-Tool and looked at the text and then froze for a while. He palmed his face, eliciting surprise from his fellow Councilors. But before any could ask what happened, the Salarian chose to elaborate first, "They're conducting a flight exercise in the Presidium area next to C-Sec Academy, I mean the synthetic Anchor and the one Elrian human called Viktoriya."

Sparatus was the first to gather his wit and responded with worry, "Whose idea is it to allow them to do so in full view of the population and representatives from every Citadel member?"

"It was the suggestion from the scientists and biologists on the Citadel," Valern replied quickly, seemingly memorized all the events ongoing, "they were scheduled to hold a science conference in a few days from now, but after the attacks, the event was put on hold and they have nothing to do. SPECTRE Jondum and SPECTRE Shepard agreed to request them to study them with non-invasive procedures. We may find something yet."

"I take it that C-Sec is also observing this too, right?" Sparatus asked, which the Salarian Councilor responded with a nod, easing his worries a little.

Tevos, decided that it was too late to stop what's happening now, quickly called C-Sec and asked them to transmit the visual feed from the site to their room.

The three Councilors sat down and watched the scene. Sparatus mused out loud, "However, off the record, I really wished that our government will not issue irrational actions against them. I do not want a rough start like when we encountered the 'Earth humans' again."

The other two Councilors shared a brief look between one another, but kept silent before turning back to the screen, their minds seem to agree with Sparatus if their facial expressions were of any indication.

* * *

On a balcony on the second floor of C-Sec Academy, the adjacent buildings were crowded with people. While some were in civilian clothing's, the others were armed C-Sec officers in body armor, overseeing the setup of monitoring equipment that could be salvaged from the recent disaster for this specific occasion. Which, for the scientists of every species afflicted with the Citadel gathered here, could possibly shake the foundation of their scientific knowledge and propel them further centuries, if not millennia ahead of time.

After all, it wasn't every day that the dream of flight, the basic desire of sentient species to soar to the sky and through void of space, long thought to be achieved only by machinery invented by sentients will be rebuked by the existence of proof that appeared before them during the peak of the siege of the Citadel.

Down below on the small clearing which doubled as park, their targets of observation were busy putting on devices of measurement on various parts of their bodies at the instruction of the scientists overseeing this observation. The two of them certainly didn't mind all the weight attached to their person judging from their carefree expression.

Soon enough, the brunettes, one organic and one synthetic, waved their hands at the waiting personnel one final time before both of them shot up from the ground, freed from the bound of gravity and soar to the sky like it was natural for them. While the scientists who were ground-bounded scrambled to deal with their observation equipment with as much enthusiasm as the one on the artificial sky over the Presidium.

When all of this was going on, on a small garden next to the C-Sec Academy, another group gathered on a white table to enjoy their downtime, some keeping their eyes on the sky above with fascination, with certain guests, primarily intelligence agents from the Citadel Council, surrounding them which spoiled the mood a little.

"Are you not going to join them?" Captain Anderson suddenly asked as he absent-mindedly stirred his cup of tea while looking at the two glowing dots – Viktoriya and Anchor – zipping through the air with a curious expression on his face.

On the opposite side of the table, Eve was enjoying her tea, seemingly not caring about Anderson's question with her two servants stood stoically behind. Tanya put down her cup of chocolate milk before shaking her head, "I'd rather enjoy a small rest like this after all of the fighting in the past few days," she inclined her head slightly, "besides, it's not like you'll get any drastically different results from our observation anyway, considering that I and Viktoriya practiced the same school of magic. Thus used the same method to achieve the desired effect."

"It's because Viktoriya handled children better than you when you're stressed or on duty. And it's not really your duty to teach my child, am I right Captain?"

Tanya's eyebrow twitched, but didn't response to Eve's teasing.

But then another occupant on the table – namely SPECTRE Shepard and Jondum - perched up immediately, with the human carefully considered the wording before asking the petite blonde 'Elrian human' first, "Wait, you meant to say that there are different ways to use this 'magic'?"

As much as Shepard felt uncomfortable to call the art of manipulation of life energy 'magic', he couldn't help but recognized what these people accomplished as such. Even with all the technological superiority the System Alliance and all spacefaring civilization in the known galaxy enjoyed, all those knowledges couldn't explain the abilities these people possessed at all. Especially when the medical diagnosis showed that Tanya and Viktoriya are simply baseline humans without any genetic or cybernetic modification.

Thus, if the native who possessed this power and have understanding better than them called it 'magic', then calling it 'magic' is for the best, if only to avoid misunderstanding during communication.

Supernatural power or magic or whatever aside, the implication from this discovery was immense. This means that if they have the proper know-how, the System Alliance will experience a major leap forward when every men and women will be able to replicate these Elrian human's capabilities as 'Elrian humans' are the same as Earth humans - genetic-wise - unlike other aliens which have a different biology that may not be compatible with.

Back to the conversation, it was Eve who answered his question, "Why are you surprised, Commander Shepard? Do you not have multiple different means to accomplish certain task, like..." she trailed off, eyeing Anchor and Viktoriya who're currently doing a barrel roll in mid-air for a moment, "…flying, atmospheric or otherwise."

Shepard followed her glance, then turned back to look at Eve again, "I can see your point," then he repeats, "How many types of magic out there on your home planet?"

Eve placed her teacup down on her plate then adopted a thoughtful look for a moment before she simply threw the matter back to the petite Captain, "I believe that Captain Tanya will have a better answer." She chuckled a little while glancing at Tanya whose eyes began twitching. She addressed the blonde in question, though the small smile on her lips hinted that she wasn't serious, "I'm just using the right people for the right job, just like you kept saying back there."

Tanya sighed while nodding her head in resignation. She then straightened herself and answered the waiting humans and Salarian after a brief consideration about what she could tell them, "Back on Elrios, there's about a dozen schools of magic which involved manipulating the natural phenomenon in one way or another. But I'm not familiar with them."

"But you've complete understanding of your own power, right?"

Upon Jondum's question, Tanya nodded, but she quickly adds with a resigned expression on her face, "But it's not a thing that I can disclose to any of you. We have our duty." She nodded her head to the side where Anchor was chasing Viktoriya in low altitude flight in the nearby park. The pair kept popping over the top of the tree line occasionally, seemingly having fun. "This is the limit of rule bending that I could do."

Anderson stared at the petite child soldier and sighed. Both Shepard and Jondum looked at each other and nodded at Tanya in understanding with a condolence undertone, as the Alien invasion that almost devastated their home world was still fresh in her mind. And if they understood it right, the people capable of Faster than Light Travel like Tanya and Viktoriya are few and far between. The rest couldn't leave their home planet as their spacefaring technology was still primitive. Eve was a relic of their ancestor, but even then, she just developed this capability recently and it's still on a personal scale. It was not enough to evacuate their home yet.

From what Shepard managed to gather from bits and pieces that these Elrians slipped up when talking about event of their past, the only reason why the Alien invader didn't simply glass their whole planet to oblivion was because these Aliens wanted to take the planet for themselves and not want to share space or resources with an 'inferior' native sapient species. Thus, the war of genocide in the atmosphere or low orbit which gave the natives a slim chance to turn the table, albeit at a heavy price if the fact that children like Tanya could get promoted to commanding position was of any indication.

Take all that into consideration, sharing her knowledge will risk some unsavory parties to acquired a means to locate and travel to their homeworld, Elrios, and become another invader who wanted to take advantage of them or potentially trying another genocide run on their civilization. Whoever those Alien invaders are, they did leave a scar of xenophobia in the mind of the Elrios population, a scar that may take multiple generations to heal.

And Eve's next statement, while still talking about 'magic', also reinforced their theory about the state of Elrios further.

"The magic that Tanya and Viktoriya used emerged just recently, Commander. Streamlined and simple, less demanding, easier to train than older magic styles that Elrios had while still retain the potential for some improvements in the future."

Shepard, Jondum and Anderson were not stupid. They could read between the lines that this magic style was essentially invented in order to mass-produce troops (or Mages) that were 'just good enough' to combat against the Alien invader because 'old-school magic users' were either taking a long time to train or have stricter requirements to use which make them few and far between, something of a disadvantage when spacefaring Aliens are conducting planetary-scale genocide. [2]

"But I believe that you two were a cut above all the normal grunts in your army, am I right?"

The three were shook out of that uncomfortable thought when they heard a gruff voice from certain Krogan Battlemaster who's making his way to the table from behind Eve's side. Ophelia turned towards him and offered a cup of tea, to which the Krogan shook his head before moving past her, around the table, and come to stand beside Shepard. He shot his toothy grin at the petite blonde girl who was watching the Krogan with a frown from the opposite end. "It's just my observation, if I'm the one in charge, I wouldn't send an incompetent fool out, but I wouldn't send someone irreplaceable on this kind of mission either."

Hearing Wrex's reasoning, the frown on the young Captain lessen. She seemed to ponder for a moment before she replies with a nod and some elaborations, "Indeed. I and Viktoriya are classified as 'Tactical Class Mage' by our standards."

Hearing this new bit of information, Anderson pushed his luck a little more when he saw that both SPECTREs seemed lost in their thought. He inquired Tanya who's in the process of getting another fill of chocolate milk courtesy of Ophelia who pulled the jug out of thin air, "So, a… ahem… a military magic practitioners like you have ranking?"

Tanya took a sip of her drink and then replies, seemingly deemed this information harmless, "It's an overall ranking, not just military," she then looked at Eve for a second before continuing when she received a nod from the Empress, "unlike the style of 'modern magic' I practiced, other styles, while unsuited for industrialized warfare due to several restrictions, they make up for it with versatility of application."

"…"

It was Eve who broke the silence and elaborated further after she put her cup down, "You have already seen it yourself, Commander Shepard, or to be more precise, an imitation through my and Anchor's applications."

A meaningful glance at the airborne human and synthetic that flew past over them was all it takes for the SPECTREs and Anderson to connect the dots. The three nodded in understanding, allowing Tanya to proceed with explanations, "anyway, Tactical class mages, speaking in military terms, are those with exceptional capabilities to affect the battlefield they fight on a small scale."

"You mean like a Special Force for surgical strikes?" Anderson asked, but then quickly apologized when he seemingly remembered a certain contribution they did during Battle of the Citadel.

A chuckle that sounded partly like a roar escaped Wrex's mouth. He doubled over, as if holding his laughter before he stood straight again, "After they singlehandedly blew away half of the Geth fleet, you still think they're for surgical strikes like STG, Asari Commandos N7s?" he snorted, "More like sledgehammers to bash the enemy repeatedly until one side dies to me."

Tanya's lips parted to argue, but then quickly closed when she saw that Eve did not only rebuke Wrex's statement, but also send her a warning glance accompanied by a wink. Her mind quickly worked on the hidden meaning before letting out a nervous chuckle to dispel any lingering suspicions of the other.

_'Let them have their own conclusion. So, should the worst come to pass, they'd not see a Mage-infiltrator coming,'_was the message Tanya could interpret from Eve. Being discrete on a mission like this is sensible, so there's nothing to complain.

_'Now, let's reinforce their idea further!'_

It seems their minds think alike, as Eve still had her poker face on and didn't comment when Tanya pushed things further with a seemingly unrelated information. "The 'Tactical Class Mage' isn't the highest rank any single Mage can achieve though. There's another rank," she paused a little, letting the attention of everyone focused upon her, "the 'Strategic Class Mage'." Without waiting for any questions from human, Salarian or Krogan she continued to explain, "Their presence, just one of them, can instantly shift the entire battlefield in their favor."

She then put up an example with a grin on her face, "Just to give you a comparison, Viktoriya and I have to work with everyone here," she gestured towards Eve who merely nodded before continuing, "to gain an advantage during the battle over the Ward Arms. But a single Strategic Class Mage can wipe out a quarter of that fleet in just a single blow and can, given time, wipe the entire fleet out all by him or herself."

What Tanya said isn't an exaggeration. While it could only happen under certain circumstances, it still possible regardless. Thus, she's not really lying.

"They're essentially what you call a 'Weapon of Mass Destruction', just that they live and breathe like all organics beings," Eve opined with a small smile when she saw the two SPECTREs' face paled at that, "You shouldn't be surprised, Commander Shepard, Inspector. I've already hinted at their existence when I told you of my tales, have I not?"

Shepard and Jondum regained their wits, with the Salarian being the first to speak, "So when you talked about your friends saving a planet from its demise, you meant that your friend is Strategic Class Mage too?"

They stopped questioning the absurdity of Eve's and the Elrian's claim after the Battle of the Citadel came to a close and all After Action Reports were completely compiled. With so many witnesses and evidences, the two SPECTREs concluded that they could trust Eve's words for most parts.

Eve gave Jondum a nod before she added with slight unpleasantness, "One of them was, but she's more of a scholar than a military mage. Actually, it's because she started out as a scholar, combined with rare talent, that she could obtain such power."

"It seems our initial speculation about the training method of their so-called 'magic' was true." Jondum murmured just loud enough for Shepard and Anderson to hear, earning a knowing look from both humans and the Krogan.

"But I'm still skeptical," Anderson whispered, "I worked with Alliance for decades, and all superpowers we have are Biotics."

As the Citadel members discussed among themselves, Eve received another cup of tea from her maid, sipping it quietly while Tanya laid back and relaxed on her seat, enjoying the brief silence in peace.

That silence, regrettably, did not last long.

Rapid footsteps heralded the arrival of the rest of the team Shepard gathered over the quest of subjugating Saren. Leading the group was the young Quarian on pilgrimage followed by Liara and Garrus with Kaidan and Ashley not far behind. All of them seem to be in a hurry, especially the lead Quarian.

Sensing the urgency, Shepard stood up and greeted them calmly, "What happened? You all have something to tell me about those examinations down in the hangar?"

While he was the one who sent them to oversee and assist C-Sec in examining the wreckages left in the aftermath of the Battle of the Citadel per request from both Admiral Hackett and the Councilors, he only knew that it concerned about the contributions that the Nasod and the girls had to the battle.

The one who began the conversation first was, surprisingly, Garrus who quips sarcastically at the two SPECTREs. The tone made it clear that he's not serious about it. "Well, we were down there along with people with questionable knowledge in investigations doing hard labor while you two are having tea party. Is it wrong that we'd like to have some downtime too?"

Meanwhile, Tali'Zorah didn't answer Shepard immediately, she looked around the table briefly before she made a beeline toward her target, Captain Tanya Degurechaff, and started questioning her rapidly, "Can I inspect the weapon youusedtodestroytheGethCruisers?"

"Wait, calm down a bit Tali. What are you agitated about?" Shepard quickly turned towards the excited Quarian and almost reached his hand out to grab and pull her away from looming over the petite blonde had Jondum didn't do it first, which is a good thing, as Tanya looked like she's ready to jump out of the chair at any moment.

"TheyuseantimatterweaponryandyouexpectmetocalmdownShepard!?"

The automatic translator couldn't keep up with her rapid-fire ranting, and so no one at the table understood what she's talking about, until the Asari archaeologist-turned-fighter came to the rescue. The expression on her face however showed that she's as much excited as the Quarian, just barely containing it. "I'm sorry Commander Shepard, but she's… excited about what the Elrians and Nasods are capable of."

"What did they do?" Shepard crossed his arm, glancing at their guests. He saw that their laid-back attitude were now gone and were listening to their conversation with full attention.

It was Garrus who stepped up next to Shepard and began elaborating, by reading it from a datapad on his hands. "Well, preliminary examination of recovered starship wreckages in the lab showed that some of them were vaporized by the intense heat that even ablative armor that was designed to withstand heat-based weapons were incapable of stopping."

Shepard caught on quickly when he noticed the faces of Kaidan and Ashley who just came into view, "That isn't all, is it?"

Garrus nod, pausing momentarily to send a warning glance at Tali and Liara to let him explain. He continues, "Upon closer examination of those wreckages, we found small traces of damage from the breakdown at subatomic levels due to the large amount of electrons on the materials getting consumed. It's the source of energy that destroyed the ship."

This was beyond what Shepard and Jondum had speculated from the footage of the space battle. Shooting lasers out of their hands was already a beggar's belief enough, but antimatter beams were another level entirely! And as expected, all eyes were focused intensely upon their guests at the table.

Both Jondum and Shepard made a mental note to confront the two carefree fliers, doing series of maneuvers that an unprotected human should not be capable of doing outside of jet/space fighter, later should the one seated opposite of them not giving satisfied answer of course.

Thankfully, Tanya decided to be straightforward and affirmed their suspicions. "For your question, yes, that was us. And second, that's our ability, we have no equipment or weapons to do that."

The petite blonde lifted her index finger up and wiggling it around, her brows scrunched. A fist-sized yellow glowing ball of light then appeared on her fingertip with sparks flying all around it menacingly.

Seeing everyone back away from the table, even Shepard, Jondum and Anderson stood up and take a step back with alarmed gaze at the ball of light, Tanya sighed, "It's not that dangerous if you know exactly what you're doing. I mean, you even used, what is it? Ah yes, antiprotons as a fuel for your starships have you not?"

"We did that with complex instruments and containment fields with multiple failsafe to ensure safety and stable operations," the Salarian SPECTRE shot up rapidly, his large, frog-like eyes glued to what's on Tanya's fingertip warily, "not on a fingertip in a public area."

Tanya shrugged and snapped her finger once. The ball of light slowly faded away in a few seconds after that, but Shepard, specifically the sensor on his hard suit, registered a brief growing temperature close to the petite blonde. He ignored it in favor of asking the petite girl, recalling his physics class many years ago, "How could you prevent it from exploding on your face when firing it at warships hundreds of meters away?"

"The better question is, how could you generated enough antimatter to fire as a continuous beam with your own body?" Tali interrupted Shepard with her own question, "We need a massive specialized space station orbiting star to generate it in barely useful quantities, while you get to sling around antimatter beams like it was out of fashion. Do you realized how much this knowledge will revolutionize the galaxy as we know it!? Can you tell us how to do it?!"

The young Quarian's rant and expectant looks from the rest of the group didn't intimidate Tanya or Eve. It was quite the opposite. Both Elrian natives narrowed their eyes disapprovingly at the group which made Shepard return the stare in confusion, wondering what they did to suddenly earned their ire.

That lasted until Wrex laughed loudly and excused himself out of the group, saying that he had business to attend to. He turnede his back around and started fiddling with his Omni-Tool, no doubt connecting to whoever through the Extranet, but not before he shot Eve a knowing grin.

Thankfully, it seems Tanya ran out of patience first. Thus, she spoke up with a sneer, "So you people are only good at stealing? Just like how you jump-started your reach for the stars by stealing achievements of the long extinct species?"

"W-what?" Tali stuttered while the rest of Shepard's group fell silent at the accusation.

"Don't 'what' me," the blonde snapped, though her childish voice made her sounded less intimidating, the message she conveyed was more than to make up for it, "I've seen that look, have heard that tone many times before. Those who wait for improvement, for achievement and glory to conveniently fall into their laps instead of going out there and work for it! Just like those Geth who sided with the so-called 'Old Machine' or Reapers, or whatever that giant squid spaceship was called for their perfection!"

Eve sent Tanya a warning look, but it seems the demand from Tali, and practically everyone, had pressed a sore spot in the petite Captain' psyche, as she continues her tirades.

"It's one thing to observe, study what was shown to be possible before using that as a starting point for your own achievement," she motioned at the scientists at the C-Sec Academy who were excitedly observing her subordinate and Anchor flying around before directing the glare back at Tali, "but what you're doing is asking us to tell you every single secret so that you can benefit from it instantly without the need of learning. Like how you stole the Prothean's Faster than Light Travel engine and copy it right down to the knot. And it says something when your engines are still the same as the one you discovered it thousands of years ago…"

"Tanya Degurechaff!" Eve called out, while not yelling, her slightly deeper tone carried a danger sign which got the petite blonde's attention immediately, "While I also disapprove of Tali'Zorah's action right now and those who led this galactic society to stagnation," she glanced at the Quarian for a moment, "you did not know of their experience, their reason. Was it because of laziness that you accused of them? Or was it something else? Why don't we let her explain first?"

It wasn't an order, but a call, a call for reason instead of conflict. That was what made Tanya realized that she acted out of line and apologized to the host in a low voice.

The level-headed ones, namely Shepard, Anderson, Jondum, or Garrus didn't mind much, seeing that they couldn't expect a perfect mental health from a child soldier who was forced to fight off alien invasion because other option is to line up for the invader to slaughter, but her rant still sting, for what she managed to speak out was true for most parts.

A clapping from Eve got everyone's attention. The Nasod clasped her hands on the table, golden eyes locking with Tali's face mask and asked politely, "I would never see you as the one who'll sprout out those lines unfitting of your status as engineer, Miss Tali'Zorah. What changed?"

Thanks to this delay, the young Quarian had the time to calm down and arrange her thoughts before she admits sheepishly. "I want this knowledge to be a present, an object of value to bring back to the Migrant fleet for my pilgrimage."

"So, you think that with this knowledge your kind can finally go and wage war to retake your homeworld from the Geth?"

"I don't expect you to know about our plight," Tali responded testily at the tone of condolence Eve was using, "for three centuries we drifted in space with no planet to settle down because we had no place that was compatible with us like our lost homeworld! Our society is rotting away on a fleet that is barely holding its hull together despite zero population growth to eliminate the need to expand resources! We want to-"

"Let me ask you a question, Tali'Zorah," Eve interrupted the Quarian, who stopped her tirade and stared at the synthetic, "supposedly you could harness this antimatter as a starship weapon thanks to me or Captain Tanya here giving the necessary knowledge to you, can you confidently say that your Migrant fleet can stand a chance against all fully mobilized fleets of Asaris, Turians, and Salarians?"

"What does that have to do with the Geth? We're not at war with the Citadel Council." Tali questioned.

"But the Geth did," was Eve's reply, her eyes narrowed down slightly, "I once asked you if the Geth is the kind of being that'll blindly follow Saren or the Reapers without any logical reason. Now I'll ask you another question. Do you think the Geth will bet all their future on the success of Sovereign's attack on the Citadel without any backup plan in case they fail and found themselves at war with at least the three most powerful species on the galactic stage simultaneously without help – like right now?"

Tali fell silent at the implication that Eve left unmentioned, letting Eve continue further, this time addressing everyone, not just Tali, "I'll tell you what I think is going to happen if I or Captain Tanya gave any of you the knowledge, the secret of our capability. It'll find its way into your Quarian Migrant fleet, one way or another. Then, your people, who has been confined to the spacecraft for practically their whole life, will see it as a sign that they could retake their homeworld, ignore any call for reason, toss aside the signs of danger this attack on the Citadel hinted to the galaxy, pouring the last drop of their resources into turning all your ships, even the one that keep your population from dying, into instrument of war, and then throw all that was left of your civilization into the waiting jaws of the Geth in an all or nothing attack at the earliest time possible."

"That's not…" Tali tried to argue, but her words died in her mouth when she remembered what her father promised her when she was young and what kept him distanced from his family to this day.

Worse, even if she tried to rationalize the reason that the Reapers are coming to destroy all civilization soon, those words rung hollow when she remembered the Admiralty Board and their stance when a voice asking for them to find a planet to settle down and rebuild civilization came up in the past. No, what Eve theorized is the most likely outcome if she gives her the technology - technology that the Migrant Fleet couldn't make full use of due to the lack of proper infrastructure.

Eve crossed her arms and stared at Tali who fell silent, "So I ask you again, can your Migrant Fleet take on all standing armada of the Citadel races and win? If not, giving this knowledge will only send your civilization on the path to its certain demise."

"You're saying as if we couldn't invent something on our own," Shepard opined, slightly miffed at the thought that the synthetic was insulting them.

Eve shook her head in response. "I did not say that Commander Shepard. I was just pointing out that this Pandora box will bring one civilization to an early grave, when their rational thought was clouded with emotion," she then adds, "I'm not saying that emotions are bad, just that in certain circumstances it tends to make us oblivious to something that will have fatal consequences when not addressed to."

At that, Eve stood up and motioned the petite Captain to follow her down through the park at the center of the Presidium while the table and chairs they once sat slowly 'melt' into the ground. She turned to address Shepard's group, "Let us go for a walk. I believe that enjoying the sight of nature will let you calm down. We can have another enlightening conversation again."

With that, the Nasods and the Elrian slowly walked away. The two SPECTREs looked at one another, before the senior one shrugged and began following the synthetics. Shepard turned around to address his team and Anderson, just in time to hear Wrex spoke to Liara, "I thought you're going to interview them or something. What's keeping you?"

The Asari archaeologist replies, her hands kept dancing on the holographic projection from her Omni-Tool as she recording something, "I still get a lot of things from that argument," she smiled thoughtfully, "That Captain…"

"Degurechaff," Garrus helpfully added.

Liara nodded in thanks before she continues, "she reminded me of one Asari bartender I met on Illium during my younger days. Both of them seem to have the same thought of our current society. [3]"

The group started to quicken their pace to follow their guests and the Salarian SPECTRE into the park, "Good to know that we still have a forward thinker around. Working in a bar would've help our development a lot indeed." Garrus mused sarcastically.

"She once told me that everyone just laughed at her for proposing that they should study and try to create their own Mass Relay or even try to upgrade our FTL engine. She quitted and become a bartender after being a laughing stock for so many years." Liara recalled her memory of the woman.

"I hope that our guests' appearance will change that attitude before it's too late," Anderson opined, his face marred with worries, "especially when the Reapers are coming to kill us all. Admiral Hackett may believe us, but he's powerless to do anything unless there's movement from the Citadel that could spur System Alliance government into preparation for the coming apocalypse. Directly or indirectly."

"We have to convince the Citadel Council to believe us on this one," Shepard added, glancing up at the artificial sky as if to see through it to the Citadel tower despite no Councilors being there at the moment, "Even if we get some technology from Eve, it was still tech of those confined on their home planet. It's not something we could rely on against this kind of threat."

"If they go back to their home, and we somehow lost to the Reapers, I'll bet all my saving that they'll be the one to avenge us and have those Reapers hunted to extinction some thousands of years from now." Wrex quipped, which no one argued as it's entirely possible, especially when combining the Nasod's attitude displayed earlier with what they all heard what the Prothean VI on Ilos told them.

Shaking stray thoughts away, Shepard asked Anderson while they pass through a nearby pond which has what looks like a twisted, burn-out steel beams from the battle that haven't clear out yet in it, "Speaking of which, when will the fifth fleet depart? I want to discuss something with Admiral Hackett before he leaves."

Anderson tore his sight away from the ruined pond and replied, "I believe it'll be about a week at best before the Council could organize a semblance of Defensive fleet, the fifth fleet also need resupplies and reorganization after the cleanup operation. So, you can arrange a meeting in a couple of days."

Shepard nodded, as he has a lot to ask Hackett about the progress they made with their 'guest' back at Arcturus Station. But he couldn't really tell Anderson about that right here where Citadel Council have eyes and ears everywhere.

Speaking of secrets, the sight of their white-haired synthetic guest up ahead brought him an interesting question stemmed from what she shown to be capable of during the last five days but never get a chance to properly asking it. So, without hesitation, Shepard quickened his pace and caught up with the synthetic who's just sightseeing alongside the petite 'Elrian human' and her servants under the watchful eyes of his senior SPECTRE. Jondum turned around and looked at Shepard questioningly, but giving him a pass nonetheless.

And Eve, seemingly know that he seeks her out, has been waiting for him with that curious look in the clearing which opened to the artificial sky above the Presidium.

"I want some answers, if you don't mind."

The synthetic nodded at his polite request, while Tanya looked between them for a moment before turning her attention to the sky as her subordinate and Anchor flew passed by. He pressed on, "From the reports of what you did during the Citadel siege, they said that you created swarms of remote-controlled drones to secure the airspace above the Ward Arms before dismantling them afterwards, which means that you could create more of your kind –I mean the Nasod – anywhere and anytime right?"

The answer come unexpectedly from the synthetic maid at her side. "Of course, Mister Shepard," the maid replied while glaring at him with those unnerving yellow eyes, as if questioning him why he would ask that question, "My and Oberon's existence is not enough proof to you?"

"Ophelia, please…"

"I'm sorry, milady," the maid quickly apologized before Eve even finished her sentence. Tanya was drawn to the conversation and now looking at Shepard as well as if wondering the same thing as the synthetic maid. Oberon… was just staring at him stoically or that's what the SPECTRE presumed. Lastly, Jondum just overheard the conversation, while shooting him a glance of approval. It seems like he's taking the wait-and-see approach on him – an evaluation perhaps.

But that's not important, Shepard went straight to the point after she confirmed his suspicion, "Then I want to know why didn't you simply hide elsewhere and reproduce more of your kind? Why mingling with us?"

"Have I not already told you the reason of my journey?"

Shepard knew that she'll ask him this, thus he already had an argument for it. "While your kind needs for this 'Life energy' is a valid reason, but there're countless of habitable planets out there without any sentient lifeform. Shouldn't you at least rebuild your Nasod civilization, creating a founding population on a planet somewhere out of the way of other sentient species?"

Jondum's eyes widen and looked at Eve in alarm. Liara, Garrus, and the rest of Shepard's ground team caught up with them and were just in time to hear that conversation. They looked at the white-haired synthetic questioningly.

Eve, however, asked him back with a slight smile – the mischievous kind, "Then tell me Shepard, while humans have the ability to have children once every year from the onset of puberty to around sixty, why did no one ever do so?"

Indeed, the question was embarrassing, the human in his ground team who followed him here certainly think so. Ashely was coughing non-stop and Kaidan looked like he was interested in the tile on his feet all of the sudden. Meanwhile, Garrus was whistling and Wrex's toothy grin showed that he's enjoying this little reaction too.

The developing smirk on the synthetic's face certainly sealed the deal that yes, she certainly having fun with this.

Shepard schooled his feature, thinking of the possible answer before he replies with as much straight face as he could, "Even if the family has enough money and accommodation to support that many children, their parents wouldn't have enough time for bonding or teaching them. Teachers or caretakers may help, but familial bond is the most effective to develop their mentality into a decent people of society."

Eve clapped her hands a few times before she spoke up, "You just answered your own question. To think that we Nasod that were created to imitate a species similar to humans will be any different. Unthinkable, isn't it?" then she added as an afterthought, "And while I have the capability to convert sentient organic beings into synthetic ones, it's not something to use thoughtlessly on random people, all things considered."

Shepard couldn't really argue against that, nor did anyone there for that matter. But Tali's sigh and averting gaze from Eve made one wonder if she took Eve's statement as a jab to her ancestors who tried to kill the Geth instead of teaching them right or wrong.

A rush of wind blew by them herald the arrival of one human and one synthetic who just had fun in the sky earlier. They both landed a few feet away from the group. The taller brunette looking at them with a look that was filled with questions while the smaller one looked straight at her 'mother' and motioned her hand in a gesture asking Eve to come and play with her.

"Mother, can you fly with Anchor please?"

Eve smiled at her 'daughter' before she turned around and looked at Tanya. The blonde Captain responded by shaking her head, prompting Eve, Anchor and Viktoriya to lift off and shoot up, leaving behind Tanya with Oberon and Ophelia alongside Shepard and his team who were content to just sit down and observe them from the ground. With the Salarian SPECTRE trying to probe some more information that the two guests were allowed to share.

* * *

From the window of the Human Embassy that miraculously survived Saren's attack, Admiral Hackett observed the three flying beings with interest with the one in red in the lead beckoning the one in white and another in khaki to catch her before speeding off out of his sight followed by the other two.

The aged Admiral of the System Alliance then muttered after their flight, reminding him again of what they've done to save the Citadel and his fleet from the Reapers. "Will the destruction of Sovereign be the herald of the end of the dreadnought era, just like the aircraft to ocean-borne battleships?"

"I think you're exaggerating, Admiral." A second voice came from the representative of humanity on Citadel who also miraculously survived the Geth onslaught on the Presidium. He was sitting on his desk behind the Admiral, seemingly prompting him to walk back and sit down opposite of the man, "While the data from the hospital showed that the two of them are humans genetically, I doubt that we'll be able to emulate their capabilities soon. Even if we somehow convince them to share their knowledge with us."

Admiral Hackett shook his head before tapping his Omni-Tool, causing a holographic screen to appear behind him. It showed the recording of the battle in space over the Ward Arms for the Ambassador to see to which Udina watched with disinterest and quickly complains, "What do you want me to see from this video?"

"An idea that we never think of to this day despite we have Carrier as our main force instead of dreadnoughts," was Hackett reply, before sighing, "and ironically, it was our genetic cousin from a far-away non-spacefaring planet that finally solved that problem for us."

"I still don't know what you're talking about."

Hackett resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Udina, knowing that the man was a politician, true and through. He has more grasp on how to get his way around politics than Hackett could but be hopeless in knowing what the military can and cannot do. So, he explained slowly, "The missile strike before they were deployed. It was to disperse jamming materials around the immediate area to nullify automatic sensors targeting, allowing them to close the distance and attack without getting shot down."

The screen switched again, now displaying a squadron of fighters weaving between defensive anti-aircraft fire to get close and drop disruptor torpedoes on Geth ship with the latter tried and failed to intercept anyone, "While Carrier was quite innovative on its own as our way to get around the Treaty of Farixen, in practice it still not as good as a dreadnought due to the advantages of the GARDIAN systems," Hackett explained, "Actually, in my opinion, that's precisely why we could get away with building Carriers in the first place. Most of the Council members do not deem them as a threat because we'll lose hundreds of fighters in every engagement, which is not very cost-effective as we have to replace lost equipment and pilots no matter if we win or lose."

Undina nodded, he could understand when Hackett put it like that, especially when the use of Carrier could easily make other races, even human, think that the System Alliance combat doctrine revolved around throwing lives at the enemy until they drowned in bodies. Good thing that most military operations up to this day is a small-scale conflict like pirates and slaver raids. But that's not going to last long, not after what Shepard and the 'Elrian human' brought back.

The old Admiral smirked at the expression the Ambassador made, before he continued, "Actually, our intelligence branch has recovered the material that jammed the sensors and GARDIAN point defense system. Preliminary analysis in the lab on our fleet here have shown that the material itself is remarkably simple. So simple that even the System Alliance standard-issue on-board fabrication equipment could make it, provided we have access to raw material, which is extremely cheap in the current market."

_'Though we still need a delivery method that won't get shot down thousands of kilometers from the enemy first,'_ Hackett thought while closing the video, _'At least the tech said that this material is potent enough to prevent anyone from simply FTL away too, that's quite a plus.'_

The Ambassador coughed a few times, gaining Hackett's attention before he brought forth another issue, "Steve, as much as I appreciate that you get something out of this to improve humanity, but we have a more pressing matters on our hands."

"You mean the 'Elrian human'?"

Udina nodded, his face adopted a tired expression coupled with weary voice "Indeed," he sighed, "no one ever thought that there'll be cousins out there, one that was displaced so long ago, perhaps by hubris of some extinct ancient alien. Though our cousin has yet to reach space flight, they instead achieved what we thought to be impossible because their planet was so damn hostile."

That was what Hackett and most of the high-ranking officers of the System Alliance Navy thought as well. Some people back at Arcturus Station expressed concerns about the alien invasion on their planet. Many want to propose an expedition to Elrios in order to bring them under the fold of System Alliance, to reunite them with their long-lost cousin once more. Getting their knowledge about using that strange power which allow normal humans to bring down space cruisers or enhanced healing capability being a bonus certainly has their appeal.

But of course, given their bad first impression with the Alien not so long ago, Hackett doubt that the Elrian here would willingly guide them to their planet. And considering that it sits out of the way of a Mass Relay somewhere in the galaxy, the System Alliance wouldn't spend its budget on a fool's errand of a blind search either.

Of course, that's precisely partly the reason why he put on hold the interview for a later date despite Hackett wanting to do so the moment they were on board. Then there's the SPECTRE's request when they return to the Citadel, which means there's little he could do but wait.

Meanwhile, Udina continued to list the problems that they're going to face, "And then there's the Citadel Council and their respective governments. The arrival of these Elrians could potentially cost us the seat on the Council. Though they're grateful of our help against Saren, what Elrian displayed there can also tip the scale in the opposite direction, what with being our genetic cousin and all."

"You're being pessimistic, Udina," Hackett countered politely, citing an example afterwards, "Remember when humanity first develop Biotics? When we become aware of them by the Citadel races' knowledge, it still takes another decade before we could establish a first-generation Biotics training program. And another decade before we have stable implants and enough experience to properly train them. I doubt that we could have our ground pounders start slinging around, ahem, magic like these Elrians within the next couple of years even if they decided to share knowledge with us."

The Human Ambassador rested his back on his chair and snorted, "As if the mass would care about that. And giving resentment of other species toward mankind's advancement in recent years, I doubt they'd care either."

"Perhaps we should stop looking at the Citadel Council as the end to all thing in galactic stage and find some alternative."

Hackett's musing was met with a frown from Ambassador Udina as the latter crossed his arms, "That's not a good joke, Admiral. We've spent over 30 years building up influences, contributing our support for the Citadel Council members to the point of finally have our first SPECTRE. You're going to suggest that we throw away our chance at Council seat just because this set back?"

Though Udina's voice was calm and polite, a spark of displeasure could be heard lingering in his words, which didn't escape Hackett's ears. Though Hackett wanted to tell the Ambassador that adaptability is the Human's greatest strength, he opted for a better alternative that wouldn't risk turning this into nonconstructive argument instead.

"Speculating won't get us anywhere," Hackett said with finality, "We should arrange some proper time to meet with those 'Elrians' and the synthetics and get out some truth. Only after that that we can find a proper response and recommendation to the Alliance."

Udina frowned, but nodded, accepting Hackett's idea, "Then we must hope that the politicians won't make any stupid, rushed decisions," He noted while fiddling with his Omni-Tool to order a refreshment seeing that their discussion is over, "Things are already fragile as it is."

* * *

**Author's Note**

**[1] It's normal to select people with good traits to go to space so they can survive better. And gene therapy among System Alliance people are mentioned as mandatory in the Codex.**

**[2] It's misunderstanding from Shepard and Citadel race's part, but what misunderstanding… you guess yourself.**

**[3] I give you three guesses who Liara's referring to, but at this point in time it's debatable if she knows of their true relationship or not.**

**And I just noticed that the last chapter has a wrong number on it, just corrected it.**

**Suffice to say, I want to have more interaction between the cast, but as the words already high as it is, I think I have to write the rest sometime later on. And I feel that this chapter is a bit sloppy, sorry if it's not very entertaining.**

**Oh, and Human still not having a seat on Council yet. They don't even meet with Councilors at this point in time. I feel that in-game, the scene where the three Councilors allow human to become the fourth Council take place a few days, if not week after Sovereign bit the dust, not immediately after the boss fight.**

**Rate and Review as you see fit, until next time.**


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